Filia Noctis Ex
by MarieCarro
Summary: FAGE 12. Never too late to Start Anew - "Don't you know who I am?" "Yep, I just don't care." A millennia ago, a vampire's entire world was torn apart. Now, she's out for revenge on her family's murderers, but first, she must revive Lucifer's first—Vladislaus Dragulia. Her father. Written for Alyscia!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

Hey lovelies! Can you believe it? I participated in FAGE this year, and oh my god, I can't believe I actually managed to complete this story in less than 3 months. That's a record for me, I'm telling you!

What am I saying? I don't need to tell you! You guys know how long it can take me to write a story xD

I hope you'll enjoy this story of mine. It's a so-called short multi-chapter, and it's 16 chapters in total. I will post a chapter every 30 minutes until every chapter is up, starting now :) No more AN's until the end ;-)

Have fun!

**FAGE 12. Never Too Late to Start Anew**

**Title: **Filia Noctis Ex

**Written for: **Alyscia

**Written By:** MarieCarro

**Beta: **Alice's White Rabbit

**Rating:** M/NC-17

**Summary/Prompt used: **"Don't you know who I am?" "Yep, I just don't care."A millennia ago, a vampire's entire world was torn apart. Now, she's out for revenge on her family's murderers, but first, she must revive Lucifer's first—Vladislaus Dragulia. Her father.

**If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this exchange visit the facebook group: Fanficaholics Anon: Where Obsession Never Sleeps, or add the C2 to get all the stories direct to your inbox. Just search for FAGE 12 :)**

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**CHAPTER 1**

I stared at the large building, disgruntled I had no choice but to sneak inside, hopefully undetected, but considering who was the chief of staff, I was already doubting my success.

Not only because the doctor would be able to smell me but because it was his office I needed to break into. On top of that, there was no guarantee the codex I was looking for was kept here, but I thought I'd try my luck at least before trying the fort that was the doctor's home.

But before I could even attempt to enter the hospital, I needed to figure out a disguise for myself just in case any humans took notice of me. If it hadn't been too risky, I would have simply unfolded my wings and flown straight to the window, but even the sleepless mortals of Seattle would see that despite the dark.

It was starting to look suspicious that a seemingly small and harmless girl as I appeared to be was angrily glaring at the hospital, and several passing humans gave me curious glances. So with one last huff, I squared my shoulders and walked inside.

The reception area was rather quiet, which didn't surprise me since it was in the middle of the night, and the emergency entrance was in a different part of the building, but it sure made it more complicated for me to slip away since everyone could keep track of everyone. I could hypnotize the receptionist, but sometimes the effects of my gift lingered longer than desired, and the last thing I wanted was for the doctor to find his staff put into a trance. He'd immediately know there was another vampire in the building, and I'd have to leave before I could search for the codex.

In the span of one second, I mapped every single exit, in case I'd need a quick escape, and every hideout. I also pondered my options on how to pass the reception without alerting anyone to my presence. To my displeasure, hypnosis was the only way, and I searched out the eye contact I needed.

The receptionist looked up, saw me, and then looked back down. She didn't react as I casually strolled past the area because she now thought I was a doctor at the hospital, and as soon as I found an empty storage room, I slipped inside.

There was nothing in there that was of use to me. Only packages of gauze, disposable gloves, and bottles of sanitizing solution.

I sighed. I would have to choose a victim of similar height and build as myself, kill her, and then steal her clothes and ID badge. It was the only way I could blend in.

If I'd had more time, I could have falsified a badge—hell, I would have chosen a night when the doctor wasn't at the hospital—and kept from leaving a trail of bodies behind me, but I was already running behind schedule.

If I missed "The Day", Lucifer forbid, I would have to wait even longer, and I wasn't too keen on that idea. It had to be now, and the ritual needed to be fully prepared in the next couple of months. If I succeeded, my father would be very pleased and shine his benevolence on me.

Thoughts of my father caused me to reach for the small blood-filled vial I had attached on a chain around my neck. The only piece I had left of him.

My heart ached, but I clenched my jaw and forced myself to focus instead. I would have my father back soon enough.

I listened intently for footsteps in the corridor, and when I heard what sounded like a woman whose scrubs would fit me, I moved fast to snatch her inside the storage room. Before she even comprehended what was happening, my long, sharp teeth had sunk into her flesh, and I took large, satisfying gulps of her blood until she was empty.

I was going to kill her anyway, so there was no idea of wasting a perfectly good meal even though I'd hunted before I went to the hospital.

As the nurse's limp body fell to the ground at my feet, I cursed myself for giving me another task to do before I could continue my search. I needed to dispose of her body in the most inconspicuous way possible, and several possibilities went through my mind before I settled with one that was quite gruesome but did the job effectively.

I grabbed a roll of black trash bags and made quick work of "disassembling" the woman. The fact that her body was empty of blood made the whole process a lot less messy, but I worried the snapping of her bones would alert the first person passing in corridor outside.

Once I was done, I put on the scrubs, clipped on the badge, and grabbed the knotted trash bag in my hand. By the first window, I checked my surroundings before I tossed it outside. It would take a long time before anyone found the body, and hopefully, she'd be decomposed to the point that any bite marks would be impossible to detect.

I resumed my search and turned the next corner, but I instantly froze when I saw none other than Dr. Carlisle Cullen himself, walking toward me at the end of the corridor. On pure instinct, I threw my hypnotic power at him to make him believe the corridor was empty. My slow heartbeat—the pace that signified a vampire—almost became standstill as he passed me. His ice-blue eyes—a feature that made it clear he wasn't a true vampire like myself—looked through me, and I exhaled with relief once he'd disappeared from my sight.

There was no time to waste now. As soon as he got out of my hypnosis, he'd smell the traces of me on his clothes. We hadn't touched, but my smell was so much more potent than his, so it was enough that he'd passed me.

That was bad news in itself. The smell would follow him home, and that big coven of his would have the best identifier they could get. If the codex wasn't in his office, it would be impossible for me to get into their house to search there once they knew my scent. It could easily turn into a fight if they became territorial, and it wouldn't matter that I was stronger than all of them because I wouldn't be able to morph into my other shape without revealing my identity—something I would prefer to keep to myself until the very end.

The few advantages I had, such as the fact that none of their gifts worked on me because of my blocking gift, wouldn't help me against the empath's raw fighting skill, or the mind reader's and seer's abilities to back the others up without any verbal cues.

With hurried steps, but still slow enough not to tip off any of the humans I passed, I reached Dr. Cullen's office. Naturally, it was locked, and it needed an ID badge to open. The nurse's badge didn't have clearance, and I cursed my bad luck. Once again, I'd have to leave destruction behind, but then again, my disguise was already ruined because of my unexpected meeting with the doctor.

I pulled the small, electronic card reader from the wall to reveal the wires connected to it and used my nails to strip them of their casing. The light on the lock turned green once I'd connected the right ones. I didn't bother putting the reader back in its place. I would leave through the window once my search was done.

To the best of my abilities, I took slow, calculated breaths as I searched the doctor's office. His bookshelves were filled with medical journals and books I was certain he only had there as props. With a vampire's infallible memory, he didn't really need them.

The codex I was searching for, though, was a very rare piece of ancient vampire history. It had been written by my father around the time of my birth, and it was absolutely necessary I find it, or I wouldn't be able to resurrect him. Every step of the ritual was in that codex, and I had traced it all the way to the Cullen coven.

It had taken me centuries to find it because, while the Volturi didn't have it destroyed when they burned my family's castle, it had changed owner many times across the years. Carlisle Cullen had only recently, in the last couple of decades or so, been in possession of it, according to my contact.

Since the codex was so important, and the doctor was a vampire who constantly thirsted for knowledge, I believed he could have possibly hidden it in his office so he could try to decipher it when his patients or staff didn't need him.

Unfortunately, I'd been wrong in my assumptions. The codex was nowhere to be found, and I searched that office from top to bottom. I even checked for secret compartments in his shelves and desk. Nothing.

In the distance, I heard the running steps of the doctor, and I knew my hypnosis had worn off. He was now tracking me, and I was effectively out of time.

Just as a precaution, I morphed the color of my brown eyes into the universal ice-blue color of the modern breed of vampire. I hated having to hide the brown because I'd gotten the color from my father, but it gave me one less thing to explain if I got caught.

I wrenched the window open and crouched on the sill to look down at the ground below. It was pavement and would definitely crack when I landed, but I didn't have time to worry about how the humans would explain that.

The second the door to the office was thrown open, I jumped and bent my knees ever so slightly so I could land steadily on the ground. Once my feet impacted with the pavement, I paused for an eighth of a second—so I could look up at the window, and sure enough, Dr. Cullen stood with his head out of the window, looking at me with disbelief coloring his eyes—and then I made the move to start running. However, before I could, firm hands locked onto my arms with a grip so strong it couldn't be anything else than a vampire.

With reluctance, I looked up at my captor and met the intense, piercing gaze of the mind reader—Edward Cullen. The doctor must have called him when he realized there was an unknown vampire at the hospital.

It was a smart move; I had to give him that. Maybe I had underestimated him.

In one last attempt to escape, I used my hypnosis on the man before me, but to my surprise, and dread, it didn't work, and the hands gripping my arms remained locked.

But something did change.

Edward Cullen's jaw relaxed, and his frowning forehead smoothed out until he was looking at me with pure wonder.

"Who are you?" he whispered out, and his voice sent a jolt through my body.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Before we can go further with the story, allow me to introduce myself.

My name—my _real_ name—is Marya Dragulia. I am the daughter of the man known in pop culture as Count Dracula, who was actually going by the name Vladislaus Dragulia. His third bride, Regina, was his true mate and my mother.

There were quite a few details Mr. Bram Stoker got wrong in his novel, but considering his close relationship with the Volturi, I was certain the wrongful parts were added deliberately.

For instance, the hero of the story wasn't an innocent 19th century Englishman travelling abroad to sell property. He was a greedy philosopher from Greece in the 1300s BC who tricked my father into giving him his blood to study it. As my father was a very curious man, he was fascinated by what the philosopher could find in his blood, especially since, at the time, no one knew what that blood had the power to do.

Being the first of his kind, created by Lucifer himself, my father had learned everything he knew through trial and error, and that included the creation of other vampires.

He knew from the beginning he was venomous and that his bite would suffice to create companions, and that was the sole manner of how he went about creating his family until he met my mother. By then, he already had two wives—Domina and Dea—and multiple "children" with them; all of them created through his bite. My mother was no different until the second she opened her eyes after her change. When she did, an instinct awakened in him that he hadn't felt before.

The instinct to procreate … in the traditional way. Before that moment, sex had only existed as a form of pleasure.

Just like any species or creature walking the earth, vampires had two basic instincts: survival and procreation. However, for the longest time, it was believed vampires couldn't have biological children, but the truth was it was very much possible as long as the two vampires were true mates.

Although, a vampire finding its true mate is a very rare phenomenon, but my parents were, and it was through that occurrence I was born.

Vampires like me and my family, real vampires as I saw it, could easily blend in with humans. Apart from our slower heartbeat and supernatural beauty, nothing really stood out about our appearance. We didn't have a universal denominator that identified what we were because all of us had different eye colors and skin tones. Only our metamorphosis revealed what we truly were.

When we wanted to, we could transform ourselves into terrifying, winged, devil-like creatures with gray skin, long fangs, ice-blue eyes, and claws for hands and feet.

That was the biggest difference between real vampires and the modern breed that existed today.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My birth took place centuries after the Greek philosopher had acquired my father's blood.

Since he never heard anything from the philosopher and so many years passed, my father naïvely thought the man had died before his research was complete and quickly forgot about it as he went about expanding his family and finding my mother. Never in his wildest dreams could he have anticipated what would actually come of it.

You see, the philosopher had injected my father's blood into his own body, along with two other men. They had hoped to gain my father's physical abilities and his hypnotic power without the thirst for blood to create a new, superior human species, but in their enthusiasm and inexperience, they hadn't thought to experiment on animals first and inadvertently created a whole new breed of vampire.

These vampires became an odd mix between human and a vampire's morphed shape. They didn't grow wings or get long sharp fangs, but their complexion paled considerably, their eyes became ice blue, and their body temperature dropped. They gained all the physical abilities of true vampires such as speed, strength, agility, sharpened senses, intelligence, bloodlust, oral venom, and beauty, but it was more like a watered-down version of the real thing. And they didn't acquire the power of hypnosis, although they developed gifts of their own.

This trio of men—Aro, Caius, and Marcus—were quickly devoured by their greed for power and superiority complex. They started to create more of their breed—wives for themselves, and gifted guards who protected them—and they devised a plan to throw my father off his throne.

All that time, we were ignorant in our little bubble of happiness in our hometown of Sighisoara. I had recently turned 1500 years old, and I had received a gift of bottled blood, donated by the children of the village below our castle, which was the most fragrant and delicious blood a vampire could consume.

Our subjects in the village didn't fear us like the fraud Bram Stoker wanted people to believe. They saw us as pagan gods and happily sacrificed for us and gave us blood in exchange for protection. We had an agreement all of us were pleased with, and our village was the safest and most prolific village in the world.

The bottled blood we believed was a gift had actually been poisoned by the Volturi. They had polluted it with dead blood—blood taken from a corpse as compared to donated blood taken from a living human—but the amount had been so small, neither of us smelled it at first.

Dead blood was lethal to real vampires and caused them to hemorrhage instantly after consuming it, and had I not smelled the hint of death before I took a drink, I would have died along with my father. As it was, I was too late to warn him. My entire family—my parents, my aunts, and my "brothers and sisters"—all died that night because if a true vampire died, all those who shared venom with him through a bite, died as well. Sadly, the modern breed had an advantage in that they didn't share that weakness with us.

Just before he bled out, my father gave me the instructions that would haunt me for the next millennia.

"Marya, my beautiful swan, please, save as much of my blood as you can, and when my heart stops, take my body, and take your mother's body, and hide them in the tomb I had built for our family." With weak movements, he wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. "Don't fret, my most beloved treasure. We will meet again, and we'll reunite our family."

The newly formed Volturi coven didn't know of my existence, and that was my savior. As they were occupied with burning down my family's castle, I was able to morph into my other shape and flee to the sky, my parents bodies clutched in my arms.

My father had built their tomb in a hidden location, and when I was certain their remains were safe, I flew back home to see what I could salvage from the rubble of my former home. It had been painful to walk through the once magnificent castle and find the charred bodies of my family littered all over. My aunts died in each other's arms, and I took a moment to mourn them.

In my father's study, there was more destruction than from the fire only. It was clear the Volturi had ransacked the room and taken what they believed to be valuable. It made me angrier than before, and I thirsted for revenge, but I knew my father wanted me to be smart about it. It wouldn't be enough to just kill them.

I had known my father had written a codex filled with rituals and knowledge he'd acquired over the many years he'd walked the earth, and I was certain I needed it in order to get my parents back. However, it was gone, and the chest in which he'd kept it had been broken open, so I could only assume the Volturi had taken it.

Initially, I had feared they would destroy it because of the information it held, but then I remembered my father had told me there were only three creatures in the world who could read it: himself, my mother, and me. He had written it in a long-extinct language, which he'd only taught the two of us. Not even my aunts could read it.

That gave me hope. The Volturi's greed wouldn't allow them to destroy what could possibly be of value to them, and until they could translate the language, I deemed the codex safe.

Of course, I hadn't anticipated how they would send the codex all over the world to different highly intelligent men in hopes of translating it, and it made my search for it painstakingly slow. For hundreds and hundreds of years, I had to live among the humans to hide and silently collect all information I could need—like how my father's resurrection could only take place on the anniversary of his death—while I witnessed the new breed of vampire spread all over the world.

To keep the Volturi ignorant of my existence, I changed my name to Isabella Marie Swan to subtly honor my father's nickname for me, and I kept to the shadows, only moving around at night.

Hence the reason I was at the hospital that night. For the first time in centuries, I knew exactly who had possession of the codex, and I was determined to get it. However, everything quickly got complicated when I looked into Edward Cullen's eyes and heard him speak to me.

The connection was instant and undeniable.

Edward Cullen was my true mate.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

For the first time in my very long life, I was utterly speechless as I stared at the vampire before me. Words failed and I just ended up gaping silently.

Edward wasn't much better off, but I could still feel his gift pushing against my block, and I was momentarily grateful that my own gift was more instinctual than an actual effort on my part.

"I can't read your mind," he breathed out in a confused whisper, clearly more vocal in his shock than I was. "Why are you silent to me?"

I just blinked. I needed to lie to him, but my brain was too foggy to come up with anything plausible. Although, it was a relief to know that it was possible to lie to your mate if it protected them from harm, and my need to protect Edward was already shooting through the roof.

As long as the Volturi were alive, he couldn't know the truth of who I was. It would only put him on their list, and since his creator was well acquainted with the brothers, his association with me would be seen as treason. They wouldn't even give him a chance to speak before they set him on fire.

He looked distraught as the silence between us stretched. "At least, tell me your name."

I inhaled sharply. "Bella," I said in a small voice. The strong, confident daughter of Vladislaus Dragulia was nowhere to be found, and left standing was this trembling, insecure, pathetic excuse of a girl. "Bella Swan."

A wondrous smile brightened his features. "I'm Edward."

"I know," I replied thoughtlessly.

"You do?"

I nodded and scrambled for an explanation or lie or anything, really, at that point. "I mean, I know of your coven, and that there's a mind reader going by your name. Basing my assumption on your previous statement, I'm guessing that's you."

He looked amused in response to my mini word-vomit. "You're correct about that." He didn't let me go, but his hands on my arms relaxed infinitesimally as he leaned almost obnoxiously close to my ear. His breath against my exposed neck made me shiver pleasantly. "Forgive me for being so blunt, but do you know why I have an uncontrollable urge to carry you to the nearest secluded spot and claim you?"

Another, much stronger shiver ran down my spine. Of course, I knew why. It was the mating connection that told him I was the only one on this earth who could carry his offspring, and his primal need was to make certain I was his, now and forever.

He didn't know what it was because the couples in his family weren't really mates. They weren't any more special than a regular human marriage, and while they most likely loved each other as my father had loved my aunts, it wasn't the irreversible and absolute connection between true mates.

I couldn't tell him this though. It would reveal my vast knowledge, and I needed to plead ignorance as much as possible about pretty much everything.

"I have no idea," I told him, and I wanted to continue the sentence with _'I feel the exact same way.'_ But I didn't. Sex between true mates could too easily result in a pregnancy because the odds of conceiving were even higher than that of an ovulating human woman having unprotected sex multiple times in one week. It was a risk I couldn't allow myself right now.

So when Edward let go of my arms only to grab my wrist to make truth of his words, I dug my heels in and refused to allow him to drag me anywhere. "I'm not gonna have sex with you," I said to show I could be just as blunt as him. "I don't know you."

His conflicting emotions showed in his eyes. His instincts told him I was his one and only partner and demanded he took me, but he would never go against his mate's will either.

The only reason I was able to do so was because his pull on me wasn't as strong because of his muted vampirism. The second we were intimate though, that would change.

He swallowed hard. "Bella," he pleaded, and my name rolled off his tongue as if he'd already said it for decades. I couldn't wait until I heard him say my real name. "I don't know why I feel this way, but I don't think I can control it."

I widened my eyes as if in fear. "Are you gonna force yourself on me?" It was a low blow, to play on his incapability to hurt me, but it was the only way I could think of to stop him in his tracks.

It worked like a charm, and he fervently shook his head. "Never," he vowed and stepped close to me again. It felt terrifyingly natural when he put his arms around my frame and hugged me to his chest, and it was eerie how my body had fully accepted him, but my mind still tried to remain rational. "I could never hurt you, Bella."

"I know," I whimpered, again without any control of the words that came out of my mouth when my guard went down. "I can feel it."

"What is going on here?"

Edward didn't go all territorial male on me when the doctor appeared next to us. He would never feel the need to stake his claim around other males because true mates just knew no one could ever jeopardize their shared bond or compare to it. That was why Mother was fine with Father having two other wives he very clearly had sexual relations with. She knew he would always choose her over them, so they were no real threat to her.

"Carlisle," he said calmly without releasing me from his embrace. "This is Bella Swan."

The doctor eyed the obviously intimate hold we had on each other with suspicion. "And would you care to explain why you're hugging the vampire who broke into my office not five minutes ago?"

"I don't know how to explain it," Edward said. "I don't even know what it means, but this girl …" He trailed off, and I felt his eyes on me, so I tilted my head back and met his gaze. "She's mine."

I nodded in agreement because there was no use in denying it.

Maybe it was the simple fact that I wasn't even attempting to break out of Edward's arms to flee, or maybe the doctor trusted Edward's words so indisputably, but he just exhaled and nodded.

"Okay, but she has—"

"_She_ is right here and can speak for herself," I shot back. Edward was my mate, but that didn't mean I suddenly trusted his entire family.

A chuckle escaped Edward, and I was glad he wasn't irritated with me for speaking to his creator like that.

"Fair enough," the doctor said and turned his attention to me. "You, young lady, have some explaining to do, but we can take that conversation home."

The irony of him calling me "young lady" when I was almost five times his age distracted me to a point where I almost didn't hear what he said.

"What?" I said, and while I played heavily on the insecurity card, I was already forming a plan in my head. Being Edward's mate had definitely complicated my nearest future, but maybe it was to my advantage as well. If it gave me full access to the doctor's house, and by extension, his library of books, it would definitely make my continued search so much easier. "Home as in your house?" I asked and deliberately made my voice small and scared. "With your entire coven?" The last question was directed to Edward.

He nodded. "Yes. Is something wrong?"

I shrugged. "I've heard stories about certain members of your coven, and I don't know if I'll feel comfortable around them. A warrior who is supposedly so lethal he took on an entire army of newborns by himself, and a mountain of a man who broke a vampire down the middle because he looked at his wife the wrong way." They were real rumors I'd heard when I researched the Cullens, and I knew they were embellished, but I went for the young, inexperienced vampire character the doctor had already assigned to me.

As they laughed at me, Edward doing his best to swallow it down, I smiled on the inside. They played right in my hands.

Edward stroked my hair in comfort. "Don't worry about that. I would never allow my family to hurt or scare you. You're safe with me."

I leaned away from him but kept my arms around his waist. I had successfully avoided an impromptu rendezvous in the nearest alleyway, but I was just as needy as him, and physical contact was the only thing that elevated that need. "I don't doubt that, Edward." It was the first time I'd said his name out loud to him, and the affect it had on him was instantaneous. He definitely liked hearing me say it. "I already trust you explicitly."

The doctor was clearly confounded by our deep connection, and I didn't blame him. I remembered having a conversation with my aunts about it once. How it had appeared from the outside when Father found Mother. For those who had never experienced or witnessed a true mating connection, it could be disconcerting how two virtual strangers instinctively knew they were partners for life without questioning it.

Dr. Carlisle Cullen had lived a somewhat long life, and for him to encounter new situations wasn't among the common events of his life. I didn't doubt he would try to confer with his books in order to find an explanation, but it was doomed to fail even before he started.

Only one book held the answers he wanted, and it was a book I was closer to holding in my hands than I'd been for over a thousand years.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

I didn't have to pretend to be nervous or tense when Edward promptly pulled me down on his lap after he'd settled in a seat opposite the other six confounded members of his coven. Although, my nervousness had absolutely nothing to do with meeting my mate's family. It was all because my ability to act wouldn't just be put to the test but under the microscope as well.

Edward couldn't have cared less about his family's stares though. He contentedly played with my hair, tracing the tip of his nose up and down my neck while also keeping a steady grip on my thigh. Not out of possessiveness or fear I would make a run for it, but to ground himself.

He was still dealing with his overwhelming need to claim me—the affects that instinct had on his body couldn't have been more obvious to me where I sat. It was a very real possibility he had situated me in his lap for that reason alone—to hide the situation from his family or have to explain all of that to them.

"So you two are together now?" the little seer asked. "Just like that?" She turned to her own partner, and they shared a quizzical look. "Did you know each other from before?"

Edward didn't appear to listen, so they expectantly turned to me for an answer. I laid on my performance thickly to really portray an inexperienced vampire and grabbed the hand on my thigh.

"Edward," I whispered, his name already so familiar in my mouth. "They're staring at me."

He inhaled my scent deep into his lungs, and then, almost exasperatedly, gave his attention to his family.

I was raptly fascinated by his behavior. Obviously, I hadn't been around when my parents initially went through their mating phase, but I wondered if it was normal for everything else to lose its importance the way Edward displayed it or if we were a special case. My scent was, naturally, more potent because I was pure vampire. I'd never been human, and for Edward, whose senses were now tuned in to everything concerning me, that scent would be close to intoxicating to him.

"Bella and I met outside the hospital," he explained. "We've never crossed paths before, but we belong together."

The empath narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?" His voice was soft and lulling, and I could understand why he'd developed his particular gifts. I'd only spent thirty minutes in his presence, and this was the first time he spoke, but charisma oozed out of his pores, and you automatically wanted to listen to him. It had absolutely nothing to do with his gift either because it didn't work on me. He was simply a man who knew how to conduct himself.

"We just do," Edward replied, and I felt pleased to hear how he so confidently included me in that statement.

"But—"

"No 'but', Alice." His voice turned stern as his eyes moved over to the seer. "We can't explain it. We have a connection, and it's clear to both of us how unbreakable it is. All you have to do is accept it."

I prepared myself to speak, hoping to appear tentative. "I know this must be strange to you. It's strange to us too, but I hope you'll come to terms with me as Edward's partner."

There was a moment of silence, and then the matriarch—the doctor's wife and co-leader of the coven—took the first step. "Please, Bella, would you tell us a bit about yourself? I'm certain everything will feel better, for all of us, once we get to know each other."

I had already prepared myself for that question. I knew I couldn't be completely truthful in order to protect myself and Edward, but at the same time, I wanted him to get to know _me_. Not the girl I pretended to be to gain his family's sympathies. Therefore, as I started telling my story, I only changed the details that had to remain secret for now.

"I belonged to a large coven in Europe some time ago. Actually, we were more a family than a coven, much like yourselves." I had observed their relationships, and it held some similarities with my own family. I thought if I flattered them, they'd be more open to me. "I called my creator 'Father' and his wife was very much a mother to me. We mostly kept to ourselves. Never really left our own territory or disturbed anyone, much less attempted to create any sort of conflict."

It was easy to speak once every word I said had a ring of truth to it. I wasn't lying. Father had been a very tranquil ruler. He wasn't a monster or dictator as stories of him wanted people to believe. Humans had come to him from all over the world—some asking to be changed, others asking for favors, and some even willingly becoming feeders to us.

Real vampires oral venom was like an aphrodisiac to humans, and our retractable fangs were naturally coated in a numbing agent that meant little to no pain for the human. Some even experienced great sexual pleasure by being fed off of.

The same couldn't be said about the modern breed. They lacked the numbing coating on their blunt teeth, and because they were less sharp, being bitten by this new version was nothing but painful.

"Our life was quiet and peaceful. Some would even call it boring, but we were happy. Unfortunately, a new coven wanted to claim our territory. They were all younger, and they had studied us for quite some time from a distance, so they knew our weaknesses." Just like every time I talked of it, I was transported back to the time and place when my world fell apart. "Before we could truly grasp what was happening, they had burned our home to the ground. My father had forced me to flee by myself, and I couldn't go against his wishes, but leaving my family behind was too painful, so I went back."

I squirmed a little bit in Edward's lap, tears threatening to push forward as my memories assaulted me. I was so used to only giving myself comfort whenever my heart started to bleed, so when Edward pulled me tighter against him, almost as if he wanted to shield me from my inner demons, it took a moment for me to relax and accept it.

"I was the only survivor."

"That is horrible, Bella. I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

I nodded appreciatively and forced myself to think her name—Esme. I needed to start acclimating myself to calling them all by their names, or I could potentially slip up. "Thank you … Esme." She smiled warmly, but I wasn't fully ready to embrace her kindness, so I turned myself even more into Edward's embrace. "I've been alone ever since. I came to America, I think, twenty years ago or so. Time has a tendency to be fleeting, and I haven't been very good at keeping track."

"Where are you from exactly? I can't hear an accent."

It was another one of the ungifted vampires who asked that. The blonde girl who I knew had a very tragic start to her vampire life, and the one I was most afraid of revealing the truth of mating to. Through my research of the Cullens, it had been as plain as day to me that this girl, Rosalie, was a natural-born mother but without children. She yearned for them but would never be able to have them with her husband.

There wasn't a doubt in my mind that if she found out she could have children, but only with the right man, she'd tear worlds apart to find him, no matter the cost. It wouldn't even matter to her that there was a possibility her true mate wasn't even born yet or that he had already lived and died. It would be impossible to determine that as well because true mates could only be revealed if both parties were vampires, hence the reason true mates were so very uncommon.

That particular secret was one I planned to keep to myself for as long as I possibly could. When the time came, and I could reveal my true identity to Edward, I'd only tell him for the sake of not shocking him to death when—yes, _when_, not if—I became pregnant with our offspring. It was an inevitability.

"Our territory was in eastern Europe," I answered carefully, never really divulging any crucial details, but I also had to weave a few lies in. "As a human, I was born in Italy, and my name was Isabella Piccione. Naturally, I changed my last name when I became a vampire, but after my family's death and I moved to America, I felt the need to protect myself against the coven that attacked us. I don't know how much they know about my family's human past, but I didn't want to take any chances. _Piccione_ is the Italian word for pigeon, and when I tried to find American last names equivalent to other birds, Swan was the most common." I shrugged as if I was embarrassed. "It wasn't my proudest moment, but it works."

The doctor, or Carlisle as I had to start calling him even in my own head, chuckled. "We've all dabbled in our own name schemes. No need to feel ashamed. However"—he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees—"I'd like to know what you were doing at the hospital tonight."

Once again, I'd prepared my answer.

"Since I came to America, my hunting habits have been erratic at best. I've mostly drifted around. Existing more than living, and often, I've even forgotten to feed. Not until I've been mad with thirst have I realized I'd gone too long, and it would be impossible to kill humanely. Whenever that happened, I would break into the nearest hospital for blood bags." I gave him a sheepish look. "I had no idea a vampire worked there until I caught your scent outside your office, and at that point, I only saw it as luck. Surely, a vampire doctor would have a couple blood bags stashed away in his office." I attempted an uncomfortable smile. "I'm sorry about breaking the lock though. I was desperate."

Carlisle took a deep breath, and then smiled with a slow nod. "Don't worry about it. Locks can always be replaced. It feels comforting to know you didn't have any ill-intent though, or that you planned to go on a killing spree on my patients."

"I'm not a cruel person, Dr. Cullen. I don't like to inflict pain on humans." That wasn't a lie. I had never intentionally caused pain to a human. They were my food source, and negative emotions such as fear or pain made the blood taste sour.

"Good, and, Bella, please, you are clearly my son's partner. You can call me Carlisle." I nodded. "Fortunately, you won't have to worry about food again. We don't believe in hurting humans either, but we all must eat. Every six months, we organize a blood drive under the ruse it's for the hospital. Half of it goes where we claim it goes, and half goes to our personal pantry. We have enough to feed one more."

"I appreciate that, Carlisle."

"It's my pleasure. I haven't seen my son this content since I changed him."

I looked at Edward, and he wasn't at all ashamed to confirm his creator's words. The smile I gave him in response wasn't even an act.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

"I have a question as well," the empath—Jasper was his name—said, and I reluctantly turned away from Edward to give him my attention. I found myself always wanting to look at my mate, and when I couldn't, I felt frustrated. "Do you have some sort of gift?"

If I hadn't been absolutely certain he couldn't read me, I would have been worried he would have sensed the nanosecond of dread that passed through me before I was able to squash it back down.

I had been aware the topic would eventually be brought up, and if not by Jasper, then by Edward, who was already more than aware he couldn't read my thoughts.

Still, I decided to play dumb. "A gift? No, I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"Because you've befuddled me ever since you stepped through the door," he said. "I've never encountered a single individual I haven't been able to read."

I shrugged ignorantly. "Well, I don't know. Although"—I looked at Edward again, instantly feeling relief when our eyes connected—"you did mention you couldn't read my thoughts outside the hospital."

"Nor can I right now," he said, but his expression wasn't the least bit bothered.

Alice made a discontented noise, and both of us turned to her. "You must have a gift," she mumbled. "I can't see your future, and Edward's is getting muddier by the minute."

That got Edward's full attention, and he locked eyes with his sister as he intently read her thoughts and what she saw in the future.

I found that little tidbit of information quite interesting as well. It seemed as if the more intertwined Edward's future became with mine, the more my block shielded him, too.

"Hm, that is strange," he mused. "It's not as if either of our futures are gone. It's more as if they don't exist. At least, not in a way that Alice can see."

"Is that a bad thing?"

He touched my chin reverently. "No, but it's different."

As he looked at me with absolutely adoring and trusting eyes, I did feel guilty for lying to him and pretending to be someone I wasn't, but I did my best to justify it by reminding myself I did it to protect him.

"The sun is about to rise, so I advise those of you who didn't sleep yesterday to do so today," Carlisle said and stood up. "I'll be in my office. This phenomena is completely new to me, so I'd like to see if I can find anything in my books."

I jumped at the opening he gave me. "You have books about vampires? Like, real books and not just fiction?"

He smiled gently and nodded. "I do. I'm a close acquaintance with the Volturi, and they often lend me books from their own personal library. Some they've written themselves, others are even older than they are."

I hummed to mask the hate I felt at the mention of my enemies. "I'd like to see those books one day … if you don't mind. I've always been fascinated with vampire history, but it's not easy to come by real books."

"I'll gladly show you once you've gotten some sleep."

Rosalie and her mountain of a husband, who I knew was named Emmett, passed behind Carlisle, and the man snickered.

"With the looks Edward has thrown at the girl for this last hour, I doubt they'll get much sleep."

Carlisle gave Emmett a reprimanding look. "Which is not our business, Emmett. I've told you that before, and I don't want to have to tell you again."

That the tall, much thinner vampire was able to make that mountain look contrite no doubt impressed me.

"Sorry, Carlisle."

"I believe it's Bella you should apologize to," he said without missing a beat. "You're giving her a very poor first impression of yourself right now."

Emmett scratched the back of his head with a very uncomfortable expression on his face. "Sorry, Bella."

A chuckle escaped Edward, and it, in turn, caused me to smile as well. "Thank you," I said even though I hadn't really minded Emmett's remark.

The room was emptied of vampires except for Carlisle, Edward, and myself, and as I rose from Edward's lap, he quickly stood up as well and placed both his hands on my shoulder as if he needed the physical connection more than he needed blood.

"Well, as I said, I'll be in my office if there's anything you need," he said, and then he disappeared as well.

I didn't tense up, but my mind started racing a mile a minute as I tried to come up with a plausible excuse for why Edward and I shouldn't go through the claiming he so desperately needed. But then, my thoughts came to an absolute stop.

Maybe the claiming didn't have to equal sex because that was my main concern. Since Edward didn't believe vampires could procreate, he would see it as beyond strange if I asked or brought up any sort of questions about protection. So my only choice was to avoid actual intercourse.

I wasn't looking forward to it because I wanted him more than I could bear.

So before he could even suggest for us to retire to his room for the day, I turned around to face him. Automatically, his hands fell to my waist.

"It's not my intent to be difficult," I said and traced my hands up his arms. "I know what it is you want us to do now and how much your body is begging your mind to just give in"—he inhaled sharply—"because I'm feeling the exact same way. But at the same time, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what's happening." I had to look away from his intense blue eyes. "I have met your family, we've talked more, but there's still so much I don't know about you"—_lie—_"and while I don't mind sharing a bed with you, sex isn't a step I'm ready to take today." I forced myself to look into his eyes again. "We haven't even kissed yet."

"Do you want to kiss me?" he asked, and luckily, I didn't detect any bitterness in his tone. His body, no doubt, wept over the fact that it wouldn't get its wish now either, but his mind was strong, and as he'd said outside the hospital, he would never force himself on me.

I nodded. "Yes."

He smiled. "Then go ahead."

A surge went through my stomach, a very pleasurable one at that, and I wanted to give him another taste of who I actually was. I wasn't the meek little girl he most likely thought I was after the brief time we'd spent in each other's company. I was someone who liked to take charge, and I was going to show him that.

So the hand I had on his upper arm traced up farther until it was grabbing the hair on the back of his head, and then I determinedly pulled his face down to my level and attached my mouth to his.

As my venom came in contact with his, it was as if small explosions went off in my head and all over my body, and both of us moaned loudly, not at all caring if the others in the house could hear us.

I'd never experienced anything like it before. I wanted him, and I wanted him to want me. I wished I could tell him to forget my earlier words and just do as he desired. I didn't even want him to take me to his room because I wanted everything he could give me right there in the middle of the family room.

"Bella," he breathed and pulled me tighter against his body. "What the hell are you doing to me?"

I couldn't control it. A force much greater than myself took over and engaged my fangs before I was consciously aware of it. They were already buried in Edward's neck by the time I got my senses back, but I wasn't drinking from him. I was giving him my venom, and he didn't even seem aware of how my bite wasn't painful to him.

In fact, he moaned even loader, and it was most likely his reduced human part reacting to the chemicals on my teeth that made the whole procedure erotic to him.

His modern breed didn't bite when they mated, so while he was lost in the sensations now, I knew he'd have questions about my teeth marks on his neck after.

Slowly, I unlocked my jaws and released his neck rather reluctantly, and before he could look at me, I withdrew my fangs and turned my back to him. He wasn't having it though. He grabbed my waist and pulled me back against him.

"Unless you want me to self-combust, I'm begging you to come with me to my room," he panted in my ear. "I just need to touch you."

I had barely nodded before he swept me up in his arms and ran up the stairs. I had no idea how I'd be able to avoid being completely intimate with Edward for the next couple of months. Just these past hours had been difficult enough, but then again, maybe I wouldn't have to.

Vampires were pregnant longer than humans—almost for a full year, which ensured their babies, once born, were more developed and not as vulnerable as humans—and that also meant it took longer before the mother started showing.

The anniversary of my father's death was a mere two months away. If a pregnancy occurred, there wasn't enough time for my stomach to grow.

I had to put it off for a few days though, so as to not incite more suspicion in Edward after I'd told him I wanted us to know each other better first.

None of this—finding my mate and most likely creating an offspring with him—had been part of my plan, but as it happened, I now had to work around it without much choice for an alternative.

In the end, I hoped it all turned to be in my favor.

But as Edward started worshiping every inch of my body by the use of his mouth and hands only, my thoughts couldn't have been further away from the end result.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

I crawled out of Edward's bed, not in need of a full day's sleep as I'd slept for a solid twelve hours the day before my failed search at the hospital, and put my clothes back on before making sure the curtains were effectively shutting out all daylight. I wanted Edward to have a restful sleep, and while the sun didn't do any real damage to us, we were more sensitive to its bright rays compared to a regular human, and it would disturb him.

We could go out in the day without anything too dramatic happening, but it was uncomfortable to our eyes. Before the invention of sunglasses, it was close to unbearable for a vampire to go out on sunny days.

With awe, I stared at my sleeping mate.

Such a new relationship, yet so absolute I already knew my slow heartbeat would stop if he ever ceased to exist; it was described as love at first sight in fairy tales but ran deeper than the Mariana Trench.

Reverently, I touched his cheek with my fingertips, and feeling my presence even in his unconscious state, he smiled and gravitated toward my touch. My entire being ached for him because while he had only lived a fraction of my own lifespan, his solitude had been more profound than mine.

I had never minded being alone, and Edward wouldn't be the first man I'd lain with. Whenever I'd craved physical closeness, I'd sought it and quenched that need because I had always known the odds of finding my true mate were slim.

In Edward's world, where true mates didn't exist, all he could hope for was to find someone like those in his family had. Almost all his years, apart from those I'd found where he lived separately from them, he'd been surrounded by couples, and I was certain it had pained him greatly.

Quietly, I stepped out of the room and down the corridor where I could hear movement, and when I looked through the small crack of the thick oak door, I saw Carlisle thoughtfully perusing his shelves.

"Can't sleep, can you?" he asked without turning to me, but the smile in his tone told me he didn't mind my presence.

"I didn't need to," I said and walked into the large home office. "And I didn't want to interrupt Edward's rest, so I thought I'd see if you were up to showing me some of those books you mentioned."

"You're a curious girl, aren't you?" he observed and turned to me. "Nothing wrong with it. Knowledge is the only tool we really need in life, after all."

I gave him a skeptical smile. "While I do agree that knowledge is important, it didn't do my father much good when our enemies burned down our home."

Sadness and sympathy crept into the doctor's eyes. "He wasn't a fighter then?"

"No," I confirmed and walked closer to him. "I'm not saying he couldn't fight, but he preferred other methods when it came to dealing with those who disagreed with him." I looked into his eyes. "You remind me of him in that way."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Good. It was meant as one." I reached up and traced my hands over the numerous spines. "That night, it was to our disadvantage though. They weakened him; made him incapable of fighting." My jaw clenched at the memory. "If you ask me, they chose the coward's way."

"Bella," Carlisle said softly and put a hand on my shoulder to turn me back to face him. "Few of us live through this life without trauma. It's a dark existence for sure, and all we can hope for is to find small spots of light to lead us. But don't let your past poison your mind."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I've noticed the way you speak of those who took your family from you is laced with want for revenge. I don't blame you, but you need to remember that revenge won't bring your family back." He walked over to his desk and looked at a photo of his family with unadulterated love shining in his eyes. "Edward was my first son, and as his chosen partner, you are now my daughter. I'm looking forward to getting to know you even better, and I would hate seeing you fall deeper into despair because you choose the path of violence."

I swallowed down the bitter taste of my venom and fought against my need to lash out at him. "So you're saying I should just forget. Move on and live my life as if nothing happened?"

"Not at all," he disagreed. "I'm saying you should take a look around at what you have now. What you risk losing if you don't take care." He crossed his arms casually and sighed. "I know what you're going through. I've seen it in all of my family members, but most particularly in one. My daughter Rosalie. She sought her revenge and took it, but it didn't make her any happier."

"You'll find Rosalie and I are very different people," I retorted but bit back what I wanted to say the most. How wrong he was about the revenge I needed and that it was impossible to bring my family back. The doctor had, with just a few words, effectively gotten under my skin, and I was scared he had already seen through me.

But then, I saw something that almost stopped my heart. Right there on the doctor's desk was my father's codex. The one he'd started writing around the time of my birth in the first century. I was relieved to see it remained in impeccable condition despite its age, and the page it was opened to described the workings of true vampire venom in the human body.

Not that the doctor could read it, which was evident by the papers littered around the codex bearing his notes and guesses as to what language it could possibly be written in. He would never be able to translate it though. There were no written records of that language that remained in the world today, as all of them had been destroyed by time.

The only living being in the world who could read it was me.

Therein came my next obstacle. How was I to convince the doctor to let me read a book deemed impossible to translate? He'd think me foolish since he thought I was younger than him.

I could hypnotize him again and simply tell him to give me access to the codex, but once it wore off, he'd be too confused, and it wouldn't be easy to explain that one. No, it would be better if I refrained from using my hypnotic power as long as I stayed on Cullen property.

None of my thoughts or realizations had I allowed to show on my face, so when I addressed Carlisle again, he thought my mind was still on the revenge he was advising me against.

"I know revenge can't bring my family back, but that's not why I want it, Carlisle," I said. I yearned to reach out and snatch up the codex and run, but I heard my father's voice in my head, urging me to be smart not impulsive. "I only want justice. My family's murderers don't deserve to live their lives without consequences."

He nodded. "I guess there is no way for me to persuade you to think otherwise."

"None."

"Then I only have one wish." He looked toward the general direction of Edward's room. "Don't drag my son into anything that might harm him. His life hasn't been easy, and I just want him to have a happy ending."

Now it was my turn to sigh. "You might not understand the connection between Edward and me, but I'm telling you the truth when I say that there's not a person, vampire or otherwise, more important to me than Edward is right now. I'd do anything to protect him from being harmed."

"Well, I'm relieved to hear that at least."

We fell into silence, and I slowly wandered around the room to read the titles on the spines, hoping to keep his suspicion to a minimum by not immediately asking about the codex.

"You have so many books," I mused, pretending to be interested. "How old are you exactly?" Naturally, I already knew, but I couldn't let anyone in the family know how much I'd actually studied them.

"I was bitten in 1663."

I tried to look impressed, and maybe I succeeded because he didn't press me on it.

"You haven't told us when you came to this life," he continued, and I quickly did the math from what I'd told them earlier. I also decided to once again give half-truths.

"I woke to this life over a century ago, but before my family was killed, I lived a very sheltered life, so in some ways, I feel much younger than that."

"Understandable. Your mannerisms are that of someone born in a less modern age, but your inexperience is still quite noticeable."

I let out a small laugh, and while it sounded false in my ears, it convinced him. "How embarrassing. Are you saying I act like a child?"

He laughed with me. "No, I just meant that while you're around the same age as Edward, his age is apparent in his eyes, his posture, and his way of speaking. Yours is harder to determine, but you often look insecure, as if you question your own choices."

I could have grinned victoriously at hearing how well my ploy proved to be, but I held it in as I once again closed in on the desk. This time, I didn't even try to hide that I was looking at the codex.

"What language is that?" I asked and made my tone more curious. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"I wish I knew," Carlisle mumbled. "It's one of those books the Volturi lent me, but it's written in an extinct language. I've tried to decipher it for years."

"Do you have an idea what it's about?" I asked, fishing for information on how far he'd come in his research.

Carlisle walked around the desk and sat down before gingerly taking the codex in his hands. "It looks like scribbled notes to me, and there are lists and drawings as well. The Volturi told me it's supposed to hold utmost important vampire history, so my closest guess is that it belonged to an ancient vampire who noted down anything and everything he"—he looked up at me with a smirk—"or she, could think of."

I had to admit that I was very impressed with the doctor. Apart from the language itself, he had figured out the nature of the codex, and that was far more than the vampires before him.

"But, if the language is extinct, how are you supposed to translate it?" I asked, and Carlisle once again laughed.

"That is a very good question, Bella."

He closed the codex and gathered all the papers strewn over his desk before revealing a hidden safe.

I smiled to myself when I saw him place the codex in there. It was locked away for the moment, but now I knew where it was, and it was only a question of time before I'd properly get my hands on it.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

Edward handed me a glass of blood, and I accepted it before taking a small sip, carefully making sure to conceal my teeth with my lips. The scent of the blood had triggered my fangs, and I wasn't about to blow my cover.

I was amazed at how fresh the taste was. It didn't taste like the donated blood I'd had before, and Edward noticed my surprise.

"Good, isn't it?"

I nodded, and he smiled. "How do you keep it fresh like that?"

"We use the same technique blood banks use. It needs to be processed in components. We freeze the plasma to subzero degrees, and the remaining red cells need a special nutrient to extend its shelf life," he explained before taking his own drink and humming appreciatively.

"Impressive," I commented, and he chuckled.

"It's definitely to our advantage to have a doctor as our leader."

While I would always prefer blood directly from the vein, I could see the benefits of only sustaining oneself through what was donated. Since the modern breed couldn't feed off a human without hurting it, killing was the most merciful way, but this ensured the human got to live.

Back when my father was alive, we'd had feeders; humans who volunteered to be a feeder often meant they got to live a most coveted lifestyle with luxurious living quarters, meals served to kings and queens, and garments of the best quality. We'd only take what we needed from them, and then they'd get to rest and replenish what they'd lost. Some of my brothers and sisters had even started relationships with their feeders.

I could remember back in the 17th century when the first rumor of some vampires who tried to live off animals started to circulate—now I was convinced the rumors had pertained to Carlisle, and his attempts at finding solutions that meant preserving human life—and how I'd immediately felt sympathetic toward those vampires who had obviously not chosen this life and tried to make the best of what they had.

Unfortunately, drinking from animals wasn't an option. It was actually toxic to us, and while I, like the modern breed, could drink it without immediately dying, it didn't want to stay in our bodies and always found a way to be purged, whether through vomit or other unpleasant manners.

After emptying my glass, I put it down on the table and made myself comfortable on the couch, and Edward mimicked me.

"So," I started, and then gave him a smile. "I guess being partners for life and all, we should get to know each other better."

"I guess we should," he agreed. "You told me some last night, so it's no more than fair I tell you some things as well." He reached out and took my hand in his, stroking his thumb over the back of it. "Ask me anything."

I had to take a moment and come up with a question I would logically ask if I didn't already know. But the conversation wasn't just to spin Edward further into my web of lies because I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to know where Edward stood … politically speaking, for lack of better description; whether he supported the Volturi or if he wouldn't mind seeing them crash and burn.

Naturally, I'd rather my mate wanted to see the Volturi dead as much as I did, but I knew, logically, that he'd most likely see the frauds as the best rulers because of the lies they'd spouted about my father.

"Well, I know some," I said truthfully and played with his fingers as he played with mine. "Probably far from everything, but when I closed in on Seattle, vampires I came across naturally told me of the Cullen clan." He smiled at that, and it encouraged me to be even more truthful. I liked not having to lie to him. "I heard rumors about how you, shortly after your change, left Carlisle to be on your own. Is that true?"

His expression remained calm and open, so the question didn't bother him. "Yes. He had found and married Esme at that point. I was jealous of their relationship and wanted to find a partner of my own, but apart from occasional physical encounters, it proved more difficult than I thought." He gave me an apologetic smile. "If I'd known I would find you one day, I would have saved myself."

I shook my head. "It would have been absurd of me to believe you'd lived for a century without ever being with a woman."

"Have you ever been with a man?"

"Yes," I replied, but I already knew I would never tell him how many. "A few."

He nodded to himself, and then said something that scared me. "You don't have to lie to me. As long as I'm the only one you'll be with going forward, I don't care how many you've shared a bed with."

I had to quickly conceal my nervous expression because it sounded as if he'd read, at least, the taste of my thought. My block was still up and as strong as ever, so it worried me.

Were there cracks in my gift that he'd slipped through? Could he read my thoughts? Or was there another reason completely?

"Good," I said and the tremble to my voice was real. "Then we don't need to discuss it further because you're the only one for me now."

He gazed intensively into my eyes, and when he leaned forward to capture my lips, I shivered violently from the anticipation. However, the kiss lasted far from long enough because Edward pulled away before I was satisfied.

"You need to distract me with another question before I get carried away," he said with closed eyes.

I wanted to tell him to get carried away because I'd decided in my mind that it wouldn't deter my plans if I were to become pregnant anyway. I'd still move forward with my father's revival. But to keep up the pretense, I did as he told me.

We talked for hours, and mostly, he just told me what I already knew, but I gave him the right reactions and asked the right question whenever he revealed something particularly amazing. When he finally revealed he neither supported nor opposed the Volturi, I felt myself grow calm.

When Carlisle walked through the door at sunrise, we took that as our cue to retire to Edward's room. The rest of his family had been surprisingly absent the entire night, but when I'd asked Edward about it, he only said that everyone had their own hobbies or occupations that kept them out of the house most nights and sometimes during the days as well.

I saved that small bit of information for myself and thought I could use that to my advantage when I felt it was safe to sneak back into Carlisle's office and look at my father's codex.

Edward shut his curtains tight, not allowing even one little sliver of daylight to pierce the room, before he turned back to me where I was sitting on his bed. His eyes were filled with lust and want, but his body language spoke of how he was holding back, just waiting for me to give him the word.

After the night we'd had, I felt I could safely give him the green light without rousing unnecessary suspicion.

"It's strange," I said when he slowly took a seat next to me. "I've only known you for twenty-four hours, but it feels like you've always been in my life."

"I know what you mean," he murmured and leaned closer to nuzzle my ear. "I can't even imagine what my life was like before you anymore."

I hummed in agreement, but when he lightly nipped my earlobe, my breath escaped me with a whoosh, and I grabbed a hold of his shoulder to keep him in place. "Edward?"

"Mmhmm?"

"I don't want to wait any longer."

Without hesitation, he placed his hand on my cheek to turn my head so our lips could meet in a hungry kiss. There was a hint of desperation in his movements, and I knew his need for me must have been close to unbearable at that point.

The longer we kissed, the more his instincts took over, and the noises he made became more animalistic as he devoured me.

I invited it all and encouraged even more by pulling him on top of me and tearing his shirt off in the same move. There was no need to take it nice and slow just because it was our first time together. We were both experienced, and he needed to claim me as much as I wanted him to claim me, even though he didn't quite understand the workings of a true mating just yet.

My entire body was shaking, but as his bare skin gradually touched mine as our clothes were shed, it slowed down to a tremble. His kisses rained down on my neck and left a fiery trail in their wake.

When he finally entered me with a forceful thrust of his hips, I realized I'd been incomplete my whole life, just waiting for him.

"Uh, Bella, I'm—"

"Yes!"

"Bite me like you did yesterday," he breathed out, and lost in the sensations as I was, I did what he said without questioning it. My teeth grew and I buried them deep in his neck.

The erotic feelings stirred up in him from my bite combined with our mating drove him over the edge, and he entwined our fingers on each side of my head as his hips stilled.

He rolled off me but immediately pulled me into his side, refusing even the tiniest amount of air between us.

It took a moment for me to come down from the high our mating had caused in my head, but when I did, I realized why his demand that I bite him should have worried me.

He hadn't asked about it at all while we talked for the entire night, but the scars on his neck were very "pop-culture vampiric." That kind of scar didn't exist with the modern breed, yet he'd immediately made the connection that they had been caused by my bite.

An icy feeling settled in my stomach as I realized he knew. I had no idea how or when he'd figured it out, but Edward knew I was different.

Now, the question was why hadn't he confronted me about my lies yet?


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

My epiphany made it impossible for me to enjoy the aftermath of my mating, and I extracted myself from Edward's arms despite his protests.

When I started to get dressed again, he sat up in bed, and his expression wasn't what I would have expected. He was looking at me knowingly and as if he was just waiting for me to speak up.

It only solidified my suspicion.

"So the cat's out of the bag, huh?" I asked him. I knew I didn't have to elaborate. He'd know exactly what I was referring to.

"I'm not sure it was ever in the bag," he replied and in the same breath continued. "I have my gift for a reason. I was very perceptive as a human and a very good listener. Even without people explicitly telling me their secrets, I could figure them out easily enough through the hidden meaning in their spoken words."

I smirked and looked over my shoulder, strangely proud of my mate for not falling for the ruse. "Did I ever fool you?"

"Not really. I knew you were lying from the start, but I had a feeling that confronting you would be counterproductive, but it wasn't until you bit me that I found out the extent of your lies."

"How?" I asked. My back was still to him because I didn't want to see his face as he told me what he knew. "Did you just piece it all together yourself or what gave it away?"

"You did … or rather, your mind did."

I couldn't comprehend what he was telling me, but I didn't have to try and figure it out for long because he didn't keep me hanging.

"From the moment you bit me, that block of yours hasn't been able to keep me out. I think it's because I have a part of you in me."

Of course. My venom. I could have groaned out loud over my own ignorance.

"Right," I said but didn't know how to continue. It was a first for me to be aware that my thoughts were no longer just my own. "So you know everything then?"

"I doubt it, but I've understood the gist of it."

"And your family? Do they know?"

"No," he replied instantly. "And I don't plan for them to know either."

I had no choice but to turn around and look at him after he said that because it shocked me so much. "What? Why not? Don't you know who I am?"

"I do. I just don't care," he said and steadily looked into my eyes, but I wasn't certain he was telling the truth.

"Really?" I contended. "Then tell me who I am."

He immediately recognized the challenge and stood up from his bed, not at all caring he was completely naked. "What your exact name is isn't relevant to me. I don't know your real age, and I don't know your real background. What I do know is that you're one of the first; one of the originals. A breed of vampire I thought, until yesterday, was extinct." His blue eyes pierced into mine as he stepped closer and raised his hand to touch my cheek. "I also know that you're my mate, and yes, I know the true meaning of that word. You've thought a lot about that aspect for the last twenty-four hours." He traced his hand down my neck and even farther until it settled on my waist. "And I also know what we just did might result in, which means you are the mother of my eventual child. That's what I know, and that's all that matters to me."

As much as his words meant to me, I was afraid they weren't enough. "That's not all that matters in the grand scheme of things though," I told him, but at least I knew I could completely trust him. I just hoped he would extend the faith in me. "You say you don't know my real background, and that you don't care, but my background is a huge factor in what my future will look like. If you want to know about it, I will tell you, but I'll need you to do something for me."

I had figured out that Edward was basing all of his information on what he'd heard in my thoughts, but he'd been asleep for the part where I truly thought of my plan. He didn't yet know what my end goal was.

But I couldn't tell him while we were in the house. For now, all the other vampires were asleep, but if any one of them were to wake up, everything would be over.

"Anything," Edward promised. He was about to prove how serious he took his own promises.

"In the safe in Carlisle's office, he keeps a very old book—a codex—the Volturi lent him to translate. I need you to take that codex and meet me at my place." I gave him the address of the small studio I was occupying in downtown Seattle. The real tenants were on vacation, so I'd taken the liberty to stay at their place since I had never planned to stay for very long.

What surprised me the most was the complete lack of hesitation in Edward when he nodded, and I couldn't help but question why he wasn't questioning me.

He gave me a small smile. "I'm certain you have a reason for everything, and until you give me your explanation, I won't judge you. I won't say it doesn't worry me that you're after the codex, but I trust you. Just like you trust me."

It was a little bit disconcerting to have an unspoken question answered in that manner, but I had to admit it had perks to it. I just needed to get used to it.

"I'll meet you in ten minutes," I instructed, purposefully giving a little extra time since we'd have to move in the daylight, and it made us a tiny bit slower. I placed the sunglasses I always kept on me over my eyes, and then left the house.

It was bright outside, and I felt very uncomfortable, but I shook away the feeling and made way toward the little studio to wait for Edward. Hopefully, he'd have the codex with him, but I wouldn't blame him if he didn't.

If everything worked out, that would mean I could finally move forward with my father's revival ritual, but first I had to convince Edward to let me look through the codex, if only to cast a mere glance at the page I needed.

Since I didn't have a key to the studio, the window had been my main entry and exit, and I sat on the sill of it to show Edward where he needed to go.

There was a moment of silence as we sat at the small kitchen table, and he put the codex between us. It was impossible for me to hold in my excitement, but I didn't immediately reach out for it. I wanted Edward to feel secure in giving it to me.

"What does this codex mean to you?" he asked, his tone soft.

"Everything," I breathed out. "It's what I've been searching for and the real reason why I was at the hospital the other night."

"But why?"

I smiled humorlessly. "The Volturi might have lent it to Carlisle, but it was never theirs. They stole it from my father after they killed him and burned down our home."

Because I had given him a version of the truth even when I lied, he immediately understood what I was telling him and what that meant. It wasn't a secret in the modern vampire world that before the Volturi took on their position as rulers, they'd killed the rulers before them.

The issue was that in their version of events, they were liberators of humans and vampires alike and my family had been a ruthless, uncivilized, and monstrous breed of vampire who couldn't be allowed to live because of our terrorizing reign.

"You're a Dragulia."

I closed my eyes and allowed them to transform back into my own brown ones. "I am."

Edward gasped in shock. "I thought they all died with—"

"I wasn't bitten by my father, Edward," I said and gave him a pointed look. "The Volturi doesn't know I exist, which is why it's been said for a millennia that vampires can't procreate." I placed my hand over the codex. "It's obvious you know everything about our history that you've been allowed to find out about. This codex holds _all_ the knowledge you could possibly dream of about vampires and what we're capable of, and it's essential the Volturi don't get that information."

Edward scrubbed his face with his hands, and I could see how overwhelmed he was. "I don't understand."

"I don't blame you," I said. "A lot of what the Volturi has told the world since they mounted their thrones are lies, and I understand it must be confusing to you. But if there's anything you take with you from this conversation today, then it needs to be a promise that the Volturi will never know what's written in this codex."

"They've tried to translate it for ages without success. I doubt their luck will suddenly turn."

"Their lack of success has only been because they haven't found anyone who knows the language." I gave him a grim look. "Imagine what they'd do if they found out the only living creature on this earth who can read that codex is none other than the mate of the first vampire Carlisle Cullen sired."

He pointed at the codex. "You can read this?"

"My father wrote it. What do you think?" I said with a deadpan tone. "Not only am I the last living Dragulia, but I can also give them what they've wanted for a thousand years. Do you think they'd be kind to me?" I shook my head and grimaced. "No, they would torture me slowly, and painfully, before they killed me."

Edward grabbed the hand I held over the codex tightly in his. "Over my dead body."


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

"Edward, I need to know," I said and turned my hand so our fingers were entwined. "When I exact my revenge on the Volturi, do you want to be a part of it or not?" I locked him in my gaze. "Because if you don't, I can't tell you of my plans. The less you know, the more protection for you."

Ever since I found out about his ability to bypass my block, I'd been very careful not to think of my plans, so I felt safe he knew nothing about them.

"Protection from what?"

I sighed at the innocence he displayed. In many ways, he was very inexperienced in the world because of his lack of interest in politics. He couldn't understand how it was a matter of life and death. "You are my mate. One of the few people in the world I'd give my own life for. If that knowledge came out, and my plan fails, they'd go after you in a heartbeat."

He opened his mouth to say something, but I stopped him before he could.

"No matter what, this will all end in death—mine or theirs. There won't be a peaceful solution. I will _personally_ make them pay for what they did to my father and what they did to me."

He raised our entwined hands to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. "My place is with you. I'm not going to hide away while you put your life on the line."

A smile I couldn't hold back stretched over my mouth. "Then you need to know that my plan comes with a whole lot of baggage. Carlisle is a close acquaintance of the Volturi, so he can never know anything about any of this."

Edward shook his head in disagreement. "Just because he knows them well doesn't mean he agrees with their ways. He despises their lifestyle. How they don't have any regard whatsoever for the humans they feed off of."

"That doesn't matter," I insisted. "They trust him enough to loan him the most important book of our world." I gestured toward the codex. "If they even got an inkling of my association with you, your entire family would be branded as traitors, and they'd make sure the world knew your execution was mere justice. Just the way they did with my family."

He finally nodded after a long moment of consideration. "I guess you're right. But I don't like lying to my family."

"It will only be to protect them." Slowly, I untangled our hands and reached to open the codex. "Also, before I reveal anything else, you need to know what really happened when Aro first came in contact with my father."

For the better part of the day, I told Edward everything: my entire background, how my family was created before my parents met, how the villagers saw us, the differences between true vampires and the modern breed—I even showed him my transformed look, although reluctantly because I didn't want him to see me in my devil-like shape—and lastly, what Aro did with my father's blood and how that created his entire kind.

"The only thing the Volturi accomplished was to create a world less open to vampires. A world where we have to hide." I huffed indignantly. "A world of greed and pain because that's the only world they can control."

Edward sat on the couch, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers pressed against his lips as he processed everything I'd told him.

I gently placed a hand on his shoulder, fully prepared he'd flinch away from me, but all he did was reach up with his hand to squeeze mine.

"I hate to spring this on you while you're feeling so overwhelmed already, but I'm going to revive my father, and we'll take down those fiends together."

He froze and slowly turned his head to look at me. "Revive him? Is that possible?"

I nodded. "With the codex, it is. There's a ritual in there."

"And what does it entail?"

"Blood," I told him honestly. "And lots of it. But I don't know it exactly. If I'd known it by heart, I wouldn't have gone looking for the codex."

"Makes sense," he murmured and then resumed staring out into the air, and I stood up to lean against the wall opposite the couch and waited for him to give me some kind of reaction. He was a little too stoic, neither opposing my plans nor supporting them, and it made me nervous.

"I didn't want to have to tell you all of this," I murmured. "At least, not for a while." He directed his eyes at me but didn't say anything. "Even to someone like me, who knew mates existed, it's strange that less than forty-eight hours ago, you were no one to me. Now I've revealed all my secrets." I stared at the floor, almost embarrassed by the weakness my feelings for Edward had caused. "The power you have over me is terrifying. You could ruin what I have planned for a thousand years in less than five minutes by giving the Volturi one single call."

"Do you really think I would do something like that?" he asked but didn't otherwise move. "We might have met barely two days ago, but you know me, Bella."

"My name's not Bella though," I reminded him.

He moved quickly to stand before me and grabbed both of my hands in his. "And I've told you it doesn't matter if your name is Bella or Marya or Dragulia. You're my mate, and even though I don't fully understand the workings of true mating yet, I've inexplicably loved you since you first looked into my eyes outside the hospital." He cupped my face. "I _know_ you, and you know me. I could never betray you." He captured my lips with his, pouring all of his emotions into the kiss, and my response was to wrap my body around him as much as I possibly could. I never wanted to be farther away from him than I was right then, no matter how impossible that need was.

Once we parted, he looked deep into my eyes, almost as if he were reading my soul.

"The picture you've painted of the world before the Volturi sounds too good to be true," he said. "That's the only reason I'm hesitating. And you know things can never be exactly the same."

I nodded. "Yes, I do know that. And I fully expect my father will have to adjust quite a bit. Humans don't believe in supernatural creatures like they used to, and that does complicated things," I agreed.

"Then how do you see the future?" he asked. "Let's say everything goes exactly as you want. What does that future look like?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

I sighed. "I don't really know. I've been so focused on my mission I haven't really thought beyond that point." I touched his cheek with my fingertips and traced them down to his slightly parted lips. "I'm hoping we can figure it out together."

His expression turned thoughtful. "We'll have to plan every step before you revive your father. Once the Volturi are dead, if there are no new rulers immediately after, vampires all over the world will go rogue. Too many of them are only kept in line because of the fear they have of Aro's wrath."

My heart almost stopped in my chest from the expectation. "So you're with me, then?"

He gave me the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen. "Every step of the way."

Just before nightfall and the hour before it was expected his family would start waking up, we walked quietly through the front door. As Edward went to Carlisle's office to put the codex back—we had already copied the pages we needed, and while I hated having to relinquish the codex again, it was necessary to keep suspicion at a minimum—I headed toward his room.

Hopefully, no one would notice we'd been gone.

Once back in his bed and underneath the covers, Edward stroked the skin on my hip before tracing down to splay his fingers over my lower stomach. I didn't need his ability to know what he was thinking.

"How certain of a thing is it?" he asked in a whispered tone—a precaution to keep his stirring family from hearing the conversation.

There were too few born vampires in the world for there to be any real statistic. Some had been born after me, but had unfortunately died in the aftermath of the war with the Volturi, and as far as I was aware, there had been no true matings since then, hence why there weren't any recent records of vampire births.

The modern breed had a failed attempt at creating children for themselves by biting actual children—when that first occurred, my blood had boiled with rage—but those were soon banned for eternity. However, not because of the pain they caused the children, but because of how unruly the children became in their inability to develop beyond their current mental stage.

Pain and greed and selfishness. That truly was the Volturi's legacy.

Now, I put my own hand over Edward's. "Every true mating has resulted in a pregnancy within the first week. But those mates were often so wrapped up in each other that they mated multiple times per day, so it's difficult to say." I turned in his arms so we could look at each other. "I want to have a child with you, but I'm not gonna lie, Edward. A pregnancy right now would be the worst timing in the history of the world. There's a war coming, and as soon as my father has his strength back, we'll have to head to Italy."

He nodded. "I understood as much when I heard your thoughts on the matter. But is there anything we can do to prevent it?"

"Apart from staying away from each other, you mean?" I asked, but then sighed. "After Mom had me, she used to chew an herb before she ate, but that herb has long since been extinct. I have no idea if modern contraceptives work on us."

"So it's a gamble no matter what?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

His family was fully awake by then, and we had to stop that conversation for the time being. We prepared ourselves to put on a show for the night to keep them in the dark and protect them from harm.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

I was lost in thought and cradling the vial of my father's blood.

_I held the cup closer to my nose and inhaled deeply as I tried to identify the weak odor masked by the blood. There was something familiar about it. I'd definitely smelled it before._

_When I finally understood what was wrong, I threw the cup away from me, shattering it against the wall, and I turned to my parents just in time to see Father take a drink._

_"Father! NO!"_

_I ran to him, but it was too late. He had already swallowed, and now the lethal drink was spreading through his body like a drought killing a farmer's crops. I hadn't been fast enough to warn him, and I caught him in my arms when he fell to the ground._

_His blood flowed out of him—from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth—and my pained cry echoed through the castle._

_"__Marya, my beautiful swan __..." I clutched him tighter to me as I my tear-filled, blurry vision met his dying gaze. "Please__, save as much of my blood as you can, and when my heart stops, take my body and your mother's body and hide them in the tomb I had built for our family." With weak movements, he wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. "Don't fret, my most beloved treasure. We will meet again, and we'll reunite our family."_

_"Father," I said with a small and shaky voice. "Who did this to us? Tell me!"_

_His breathing was labored and weak. "Him ..." he said. "It must have been him."_

"_Who?"_

"_A-ro ..."_

_Confusion muddled my mind about the name. I'd only heard it mentioned a couple of times. "The philosopher?" Father drew his last breath, but I couldn't immediately accept he was dead. "Father?" I shook his frame, but his head only lolled back and forth lifelessly. "Father!"_

_There was a huge crash by the front door, and I heard a terrible commotion as what sounded like a group of vampires stormed inside._

_I didn't have a choice. I had to flee, but I couldn't do so in my human-like form, so I morphed until I could carry my mother and father in one arm each and dove out of the nearest window._

"Love?"

_The landscape blurred underneath as I flew fast and hard until my wings could no longer hold us in the air._

"Was that what happened?"

I was pulled from my memories when Edward's fingertips touched my cheek.

I looked into his sad, ice blue eyes. "Yes," I said, and then turned back to the concoction of Unholy Water I was making. The ritual to revive my father was easy enough, but it was by sheer luck I found it when I did.

Unholy Water took one moon cycle to make, and since I didn't make a habit of carrying ingredients, it was in the nick of time to start the mixture from scratch.

That month had now passed, and the water was ready. In three weeks' time, I had to perform the ritual in Father's tomb. There were only two components missing, and it was unfortunately the two that made Edward the most reluctant.

We needed two sacrifices—one vampire and one human—and they had to be bled dry.

As I thought of it now, Edward grimaced, but he didn't say anything. He only wrapped his arms around my waist from behind as I packed the container of water into my bag.

It had been very risky to make the water in the Cullen's mansion, but the tenants of the studio had come back after a week, so I'd had no choice but to move into the house.

Fortunately, the pairs of the family often separated and entertained themselves, so they didn't even question it when Edward and I disappeared from time to time. They all explained it as a new couple who needed time to just be by themselves.

I placed my hands on top of his where they rested on my stomach. He often placed them there, waiting for any sign that would confirm or deny a pregnancy.

Even though there had been nothing yet, I was already convinced there was a child growing in me because Edward and I hadn't stopped our mating. It was impossible for true mates to just stop. The need to connect intimately was soul-deep and especially alluring after the initial mating.

"Are you coming with me?" I asked.

Edward inhaled my scent deep into his lungs. "I don't know what to tell my family, but I'm not going to let you go alone either."

I nodded. "I know you don't like lying, but it's only for a little while. When the Volturi are dead, we'll tell them everything. Except—" I stopped myself mid-sentence and wondered how I was gonna tell Edward that we needed to tread lightly with Rosalie.

"Except?"

With slight reluctance, I told him how I thought Rosalie would react if she ever found out that she could have children but only with one man who might or might not be dead, alive, or unborn.

"I think you're underestimating the love she has for Emmett," Edward said. "The way those two met and got together was something I'd never seen before. She could have easily walked away and allowed him to die, but she didn't, and from the moment his change was complete, the two have been inseparable. Much more so than Carlisle and Esme or Alice and Jasper. In fact"—he paused and his expression smoothed out as something occurred to him—"they remind me of us." He gave me a wide-eyed look. "You don't think they can be true mates?"

I shook my head. "If that were the case, they would have had a bunch of babies by now, wouldn't they?"

"But what if Rose can't? Or if Emmett's incapable?" he pushed.

"What do you mean?"

"It happens with humans all the time. Something in the reproductive system isn't fully developed, which makes conceiving very difficult, and in some cases impossible."

"Yes, but the change is supposed to heal the human body. It's a rebirth into a new life," I said, but he immediately disagreed.

"Not completely. Carlisle has done some research into it. Our venom cannot heal what's already gone, like a severed limb or a donated kidney. What if one of them misses a vital part for a pregnancy to be possible? We never knew vampires could reproduce, so it never occurred to us to examine either of them."

I was silent for a long moment as I thought it over, and then I nodded. "If you think it's safe to tell them everything, then we'll tell them everything."

He nodded. "I just don't want to exclude anyone. And Rose deserves to know the reason why she might not be able to have children."

The last thing I packed was the research I'd done in order to find the human sacrifice. Edward had argued with me that taking any human life for this cause would be unjust, but I felt infinitely better to know that the person was a descendent of those who had taken everything from me.

The man was American, and he was a very distant relative, so distant in fact that you could say there were no real blood ties left. I knew it would still hurt Aro though, and that was my main goal.

I was petty, and I was proud of it.

When everything was packed, all we could do was wait. I wanted to go right away, but Edward insisted he needed to prepare his family for our departure and come up with a plausible enough lie for us to leave so suddenly.

I knew he was right, but it didn't mean I liked it. For so long, I'd only had to care for myself, so I wasn't yet used to adapting my schedule and impulses around another person. I would have to get used to it though, and rather quickly too. Not only would my father soon be alive again, but I most likely had a child on the way as well.

Ten mere days before the ritual had to take place, the Cullen's finally said their goodbyes to us as we left for our "honeymoon". We weren't really married, but there was no easier way to explain the lie we'd told his family.

"_We needed time to ourselves to really get to know each other."_

We'd even allowed them to buy our plane tickets to France, which was where they thought our destination was.

Father's tomb was in one of the remote forests of our homeland, now known as Romania, and I had told Edward from the start that once we were on European soil, I wanted us to fly, which meant I would have to carry him.

He wasn't too keen on the idea, but he recognized it as the fastest and most discreet way of travel since we'd be flying so high up we'd look like birds to the human eye.

I dropped Edward off at the entrance and morphed back into my human-like shape. He looked somewhat nauseous and had to sit down with his eyes closed before he could speak.

"I have to say flying without a plane isn't my favorite transportation method," he said, which caused me to laugh.

"I guess I'm just used to it." We exchanged a look and our smiles fell. "I have to fly back for the human. Will you find a vampire on your own?"

He nodded with reluctance. "Yes, I will."

I crouched down in front of him and gave him a deep kiss. "Thank you. My father will reward you well for this."

"I don't care about any rewards," he said and looked at the ground. "I'm only doing this for your sake."

"And I love you so much for it." With those words, I once again took to the sky to find the human.


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

"I think you should stay out here."

"Absolutely not."

"You're uncomfortable with the ritual, and my father doesn't know you. It's for the best," I insisted.

"But I—"

"No, Edward. My mind is settled on this." When he looked at me with hesitant eyes, I tried to reassure him. "I haven't seen my father in a millennia. This reunion will be very emotional, and I need to do it alone, as I was supposed to from the beginning."

He took a firm hold of my hands. "But you're not alone anymore. And you'll never be again."

"That's not the point," I said. "I know you'll always be there for me. I'm not doubting that. This is just something I have to do on my own. It's something I share with my father only." I took one of his hands and held it over my flat stomach, which was still not showing any signs. "When you meet our child for the first time, you'll understand what I'm talking about."

I didn't allow him to protest further as I entered the tomb with the unconscious human over my shoulder and the unwilling vampire shackled to me with reinforced chains and shut the entrance before he could follow.

The place where my father's tomb was built wasn't much more than a cave, and the deeper I walked, the more moist and dank the air became. It didn't matter though. A vampire didn't decay like a regular human, so I knew my father's body would be in pristine condition.

A distant sound of dripping water echoed through the cave, and the smell was thick and stale. There were no foreign scents, clearly indicating no one had been here since I closed the entrance.

Good.

The cave tunnel opened up into a larger cavern where the stone tables were, and two of the five were occupied by the corpses of my parents.

I hadn't laid eyes on them for so long, and it took me a moment to regain my composure before I could proceed. It had struck me harder than I'd initially thought it would—to see my mother's long, bright red, curly hair and my father's serene death mask.

Clenching my jaw, I put the limp human body in its place and forced the vampire down as well. She protested with hisses and tried to bite me, but all I had to do was to grab her face in my hand to shut her up.

She was a no one. A nomad who had lived in the sewers, according to Edward, and by the smell of her, he wasn't wrong. It was doubtful anyone would miss her.

"If you don't calm down," I warned her in my mother tongue, which was an ancient dialect of the modern Romanian language, but her eyes conveyed she still understood what I was saying, "I won't be merciful with you and force you to witness your own ending, is that understood?"

She sneered at me, but she must have realized my threat was very real because she did calm down.

"Good girl," I praised her before hypnotizing her to believe she was home. Not her home in the sewer, but the home she had before her change. It was as compassionate as I could be.

The time was closing in, and I walked around the cavern, placing silver chalices in each cardinal direction on pedestals and filled them with the Unholy Water. I emptied the vial of Father's blood over his body, making sure it touched his skin and then I stood before the stone table, in between the two docile sacrifices, and waited.

At the stroke of midnight when the moon—the jewel of the night—was highest risen, I called out to the creator of us all.

"Per potentiam dei Patris creator noster, Lucifer. Quaero te, noctis rex, oriri. Surgere!"

With a swift swing of the blade in my hand, I slit the human's throat, and then drove the tip into the vampire's heart so their blood could funnel down toward Father's stone table.

A loud rumble went through the cave walls as the blood pooled around his body, and the silver chalices trembled violently.

"Surgere, noctis rex! _Surgere!_"

One by one, the chalices exploded, and my father's body absorbed the blood around him, causing a lively flush to rise in his cheeks, and then his eyes shot open.

I wanted to run up to him and wrap my aching arms around his form, but I held back. I needed to complete the last step of the ritual.

The blood of a child was the purest blood in the world, which was exactly what my father needed to drink to regain his strength, but both Edward and I had agreed neither of us could kill a child for this purpose. That's why we'd broken into the nearest blood bank and stolen the most recent donation from a child that we could find.

I knelt down on the ground and offered my father the cup of blood, and while his hands felt cold as death when they touched my skin and made me shudder, I knew they would soon heat up.

My eyes were downcast as I waited and listened to the gulping sounds of Father emptying the cup, and I remained that way until I felt familiar fingertips under my chin.

"Daughter," the warm, timbre tones of Vladislaus Dragulia echoed between the stone walls. "My most beloved treasure ... how delighted I am to lay my eyes upon you once more."

My sight blurred as I raised my head and looked at my father's smiling face. "Father!" I exclaimed happily and rose to my feet just so I could melt into his embrace.

"Oh, Marya!" he whispered and inhaled deeply. "My sweet, beautiful swan. How I've missed you."

"And I you, Father," I said but got confused when I felt his embrace stiffen around me.

"What's this?" he asked and parted us only to stare down at my stomach, and then place his hand there. "Marya, you are with child!" His shocked expression quickly warmed into one filled with love. "You found your one then?"

I was reeling from the revelation that he knew I was pregnant when my body hadn't even confirmed it to me yet, but I had also learned long ago that there were few things that escaped my father's notice.

"Uh, yes," I said now. "And you'll get to meet him, but, Father, first you need to know that you've been dead for a thousand years, and a lot has changed. Aro and his companions took over the rule of the vampire world. They call themselves the Volturi, and they've destroyed your legacy. We need to take them down before they ruin the world completely."

Father looked deep in thought and nodded. "I was afraid it was a possibility when I felt my life drain away." He suddenly whipped his head away from me and toward the stone table where my mother was. "Oh, no, Regina, my one true love," he moaned and walked over to her. He cradled her face lovingly in his hands and stroked her hair. "Daughter," he called for me, and I obeyed. "I cannot bring your mother back yet. She needs blood from my veins, but I'm not strong enough to share my life essence yet. Is she safe here?"

"This tomb is still hidden," I reassured. "Only I and my mate know where it is."

"Good. We have to leave her for now, but we'll be back." He held out his hand for me to take, and then he led me out of the tomb where Edward was pacing worriedly.

When he saw my father, he froze and stared with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Son, has no one ever told you it is very rude to stare," Father rebuked, but he did so in our language, one Edward didn't understand.

"He doesn't know our language, Father," I said. "He's American. It's a country across the ocean only a few centuries old. You have to speak English."

Edward looked between us as we spoke to each other.

"You have not taught him your mother tongue?" Father asked with disapproval clear in his tone.

I looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "I haven't had the time. We met only two months ago, and I've been occupied with getting your revival ritual together." I let go of Father's hand and walked up to Edward, who immediately wrapped his arms protectively around me. "Father," I said in English. "This is my one true mate, Edward Cullen. Edward, this is my father, Vladislaus Dragulia."

Edward swallowed nervously. "It's a pleasure to meet you ... uh ... I'm sorry, but should I call you by a title or just your name?"

Father smiled, impressed by his manners and his obvious love for me. "Please, son, you can call me Vlad," he replied in perfect English, which caused Edward to once again look very surprised. "After all, you are my daughter's mate, and the father of my grandchild. We're family."

"Grandchild?" Edward repeated and then looked down at me. "You mean that—"

I nodded. "Yes. Father says I'm pregnant."

"Right," he said, but it looked like he wanted to say something else. However, before he could absorb the overwhelming amount of new impressions in the last minute, Father jumped right into it.

"Tell me then, what are we going to about Aro and the Volturi?"


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

I wrung my hands nervously as I waited with bated breath at the tomb entrance. Edward was standing behind me, his arms wrapped protectively around my body, and his hands settled on the small bump that had started to show now after five months.

Being pregnant wasn't something I enjoyed because most of my strength was used up by the baby growing inside me, and he needed a lot of it to ensure his development was on track. I also needed to feed more often and in larger quantities, and while Edward would do absolutely anything for me and our child at this stage, he still had a hard time accepting all the killing I had to do.

He had witnessed the humans weren't in pain when either my father or I fed, but he was so used to living off donated blood, it still made him uncomfortable.

Vampire babies also grew very slowly, and I still had seven more months to endure, and I was more than relieved I would finally have someone to talk to.

After three months, Father was finally strong enough to give Mother what she needed, which was a lot of fresh blood directly from his veins.

I had wanted to be inside the tomb when he revived her, but Father had insisted it would be a very intimate moment, and he wanted to be alone with his most beloved bride and gently explain to her what had happened and in which time they now were.

Edward had happily agreed to keep me outside, and while I resented it, I didn't fight them either. It wasn't my place to disagree with my father.

I felt a shift in the air and knew it meant my mother was awake. My body instinctively reacted by taking a step toward the entrance, but Edward gently held me back.

"Patience," he whispered into my hair. "They'll be out soon."

A small and incredulous laugh left me. "The irony of a century-old vampire telling someone who is 2,400 years older doesn't escape me."

He chuckled and placed a light kiss on my neck. "Your age is inconsequential when it comes to how impatient you are." Lovingly, he stroked my stomach, silently referring to how I constantly complained about the amount of time left before I could give birth.

His quip was said with adoration so I knew he wasn't really sounding off on me, but I still couldn't hold in my retort. "When you get to experience how pregnancy feels, we can have this conversation again."

I saw movement at the entrance, and I realized that with just a few words, Edward had succeeded in distracting me long enough to allow my parents their alone time.

When my mother stepped outside and our eyes met, nothing could hold me back from running up to her.

"Mama," I exclaimed in our language, and she pulled me into a tight embrace.

"My baby," Regina Dragulia, third bride and true mate of Vladislaus, sighed and stroked my hair. "I thought for sure I'd seen you for the last time when those ruffians burned our home."

She had never learned English, so we were only speaking in our ancient dialect.

During the last three months, I'd taught Edward some words but not enough for him to keep up a conversation. Therefore, my mother and my mate had quite the language barrier between them, but I was determined to make it work even if I had to act as interpreter.

Mother cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead. "Your father told me you've found your mate. I'd like to meet the one who was meant for my baby."

"Mama, this is Edward Cullen," I said, and he knew that introductory phrase well enough so he bowed his head in respect and as a greeting. The gesture didn't escape Father's notice, and his smile was pleased.

"Pleasure to meet you, Regina Dragulia," Edward said, but that was the extent of his ability to converse in our language, and he gave me a look before switching back to English. "I apologize my linguistic skills aren't the best. I'm still learning."

I translated for him, and Mother smiled, very charmed by his manners.

"What a gentleman," she said approvingly.

"He was born in the early 1900s," I told her. "'Gentleman' is his middle name."

"And you have a little one on the way," Mother observed, placed her hands on my stomach and closed her eyes in concentration. As the first vampire ever to become pregnant, she had acted as a sort of midwife for those who followed, and she had developed skills—almost like an extra gift—to sense if everything was progressing as it should. "Strong. And everything feels as it should," she commented. "I can safely predict you'll have an easy birth."

I put my own hands over hers. "Thank you, Mama."

Together, we left the tomb and headed toward the house where we'd settled while we planned the Volturi's downfall. It took a few hours, and Father had to carry Mother in his arms because she wasn't strong enough to morph, but we walked through the front door just before sunrise.

"Regina, my beloved, you should sleep today," Father instructed without leaving room for argument. "You need to replenish your strength." Then he turned to me, and I knew with one look what he'd tell me. "You should sleep as well, daughter. The child takes much of your strength. Your mate and I will continue with the plan, and you'll get all the information when you wake up tonight."

I nodded, and Edward gave me a kiss before Mother and I walked toward the bedrooms.

"Your father approves of him," Mother said. "That's good."

"Edward's a good match for me," I said and smiled. "And he's a mind reader, so if there are any thoughts you want to keep to yourself, I suggest you don't think of them."

"Oh!" Mother exclaimed, and then laughed softly. "I suppose it's already too late for that then."

I didn't ask her more about that. We just smiled before wishing each other to sleep well and separating by the bedroom doors. I'd slept the day before as well, but as Father had said, the growing child in me took most of my strength, and whereas, I at one time could sleep every third day and feel fine, I now had to sleep every day.

Still, neither Father nor Edward patronized me and kept me out of the loop of the planning. They always filled me in once I was awake because they knew the chance of our success depended on both my father and me being there to take the Volturi down. They didn't know I existed, and they thought Father was dead, so we had the element of surprise at least.

Edward also needed to be there because he refused to be left behind, and his ability to read minds from a distance was to our advantage. He would know, as we approached the castle in Italy, which guards we'd have to eliminate and which ones who'd possibly submit to us as soon as the brothers were dead.

Mother, on the other hand, wouldn't come with us. She wasn't a fighter or a strategist. She was a carer, and that was why we had decided we'd wait until I'd given birth, and then she'd stay behind with the child to protect him if we were to fail.

I crawled under the covers and settled my hand on my little bump. The baby was still too small for me to feel any movements, but it didn't matter. He was in there, and he was half me and half Edward. My vampire genetics were stronger than Edward's, so the baby would be more real vampire than modern breed.

The first one born in over a millennia.

True vampires would never really be extinct. We would always live on, and it was a comforting thought to me, and with that in mind, I was slowly lulled into sleep where I dreamt pleasant dreams about Aro's demise.


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

"_Do you plan to travel for much longer?"_

Carlisle's voice wasn't even muffled by the phone. I could hear him just as well as if he'd been in the room with us, and so could my parents, but they were politely ignoring Edward talking to his sire.

"I can't give you an exact time frame for when Bella and I will be back," Edward replied, and Father gave me a questioning look in response to the strange name. I gestured to him that I'd explain later. "We're in Norway right now, wandering through the fjords and such, but I'll call as soon as we plan on heading back."

Clearly, we weren't in Norway admiring the fjords, but it was a precaution to lie about our location. We didn't really believe the Volturi kept tabs on Carlisle, but if he were to tell them in a casual conversation that his oldest son had met someone and they were traveling abroad, it was in our best interest to keep everything a secret.

Even though it did make Edward feel terrible to lie to his family, his motivation was me and our ever-growing child.

"_All right then, but just so you're aware, the family needs to relocate soon, so we might not be in Seattle when you return."_

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Tell the others Bella and I said hi."

"_Absolutely. Take care, Edward."_

Edward hung up, and Father immediately turned to me.

"Bella?" he asked.

I smiled in amusement. "I couldn't walk around and boast about being Marya Dragulia, now could I? I had to create a fake name."

"It was still tied to you though, Vlad," Edward commented before walking over to me and crouching down to give me a kiss. I was sitting in my new favorite armchair, reading through the copies we'd made of Father's codex to bring forth the endless amount of information he had in his head. "She called herself Bella Swan—_beautiful swan_ as I've heard you address her."

My parents exchanged a loving gaze, and then Mother turned her head to me.

"How are you feeling, darling?" she asked in English. She was getting better at it but still spoke with a heavy accent.

"Couldn't be better," I replied and patted my stomach. "He's finally sleeping, I've got my favorite seat, and my personal pantry at my beck and call. The only thing I wish was different is that my child could be born in a world where Aro doesn't rule."

"Speaking of feeding," Edward said, narrowing his eyes as he took in my appearance and completely disregarding my latter statement. "You look paler. Do you think Jessica is up for another meal?"

"I didn't take much from her yesterday, but we'll ask. Jessica!"

Jessica was a human woman in her 30s, and she had become my feeder on the demand of my mother. She said it was essential I had around the clock access to food, and the best way to assure that was to acquire a feeder.

Edward had squirmed at the thought but soon got used to it. In fact, he preferred me drinking small amounts more often from the same human who actually got to live instead of killing excessively.

"Oui, madame?" Jessica said when she walked through the door.

"How are you feeling? Are you very dizzy or tired? Edward thinks I might need to eat," I explained, and she smiled.

"I feel fine. You took very little last time." She was already walking toward us and rolling up the sleeve of her sweater where my bite was visible on her wrist.

Edward placed a gentle, caring hand on her shoulder. He was already experiencing the friendly relationship vampires had with their feeders. "Don't be averse to letting us know when you need more time to rest in-between. We don't want you fainting again."

"Of course, monsieur," Jessica replied, not at all uncomfortable with Edward's touch. "I won't let it happen again. I was careless that first time."

We had found Jessica in a small town in France out of pure luck and coincidence. We were looking for a feeder, but we were expecting resistance and disbelief and were prepared to do everything to convince the chosen to believe vampires existed.

Jessica had approached us because she recognized my father from a painting in her great-grandmother's house. She said the painting had been passed through generations of her family longer than anyone could really remember, and the story that came with it was that far back in her family tree, there was a French princess by marriage who, before she met the prince she eventually married, she came into riches by serving a very powerful master and his family. She had lived with them in their castle, providing them with what they needed—blood.

The painting had been given to her when it had been time for her to leave and for another feeder to take her place. It was meant as a gift and reminder of who she had to thank for her fortunes in life.

Father couldn't recall giving such a painting to one of his feeders, but he knew that one of my brothers had been very fond of a young French girl. So fond, he didn't even lie with her because he didn't want to ruin her future and rob her of a chance to find a husband someday.

So Jessica had known about my family since she was a little girl, loving to hear the story told by her great-grandmother about the princess they descended from. She had always hoped the story was true, and when she saw Father, the spitting image of the man in the painting, she was certain it was.

She willingly became my feeder. She said her life had been very disappointing up to that point, and if she could serve a purpose, it would only make her happier.

I sank my teeth into her flesh, and she didn't even flinch. Naturally, there was no pain for her, and she calmly sat through my meal. When I was finished, Edward was there to tend to the open wound with sterile bandages.

"Merci, monsieur," Jessica said when he'd secured the bandage.

"Go to the kitchen and get some food and drink lots of fluids. Then, you're going to take a long, nice nap, okay?" he gently ordered.

"I will," she agreed, but before she left, she reached for my hand and squeezed it with a smile. "How are you? And how is the baby?"

"We're fine," I reassured her. It was very common for feeders to get attached to their vampires as well, and Jessica had started to show an almost maternal worry for both me and the child. "Go rest. Please."

She finally left to take care of herself, and I got up from the chair.

I was ten months along, but still not a whole lot bigger than a human pregnant woman. The two months I had left were mostly to strengthen the baby's muscles and bones as well as developing the intelligence further. Once born, the child would look like a human baby would at four to six months—apart from the fact that he would have all of his teeth—but he would have the intelligence of a five or six-year-old.

As I approached the table where our plans were laid out, Edward came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. He liked standing like that because he could connect with both me and the child.

He'd already been able to read his thoughts, which was how we knew it was a boy, and we talked to him through my stomach almost every night, explaining things to him, painting a picture of the world, what we were, and what he was.

But we'd yet to give him a name.

I wanted to name him Theron as it meant "untamed", which was exactly what I wanted him to be, but Edward wanted a more traditional name. As it was, we were still discussing it.

"So the plan is to eliminate those with closest ties to the brothers," I observed, and Father nodded. "Chelsea is the one who ties the guard to them, right? Wasn't she with them from the beginning?"

"According to our sources, yes," Father said. "She won't turn her back to Aro, no matter what, which means her partner, Afton, won't either. We can't let them live. Hopefully, with Chelsea out of the way, it will be easy enough to see which ones are too loyal to the brothers to go against them."

"We can't let Jane live either," Edward chimed in. "Not that she's necessarily completely devoted to Aro, but she's a sadist. She'd never submit to your more tolerant rule." He sighed. "I've never met her myself, but I've seen enough in Carlisle's mind to know she's a danger to humans and vampires alike."

I pointed to a name on the list of all the members of the Volturi coven. Specifically a name high up, yet I had no idea who she was. "Who's Renata?"

Before Father could answer, Edward spoke.

"Aro's personal bodyguard. A very timid vampire. Carlisle never once saw her physically fight, but that doesn't mean she can't."

"Why the question mark?" I asked.

"It's hard to determine if she's loyal to Aro out of choice or because of Chelsea," Father said. "She will clearly be an obstacle. She's like Aro's shadow, so we can't underestimate her place in the grand scheme. She can make or break our success if we can't get to Aro."

I hummed as I thought about if for a moment. "What's her gift? Why is she so valuable to Aro?"

"She blocks physical attacks with her mind. Like an invisible force field."

A small little laugh escaped me. "I can easily bypass that. So far, there haven't been any tricks of the mind I can't shut out."

Edward placed a kiss behind my ear, which made me giggle. "Except for mine, that is," he teased.

I smirked. "Don't let it go to your head. If I hadn't bitten you, you still wouldn't have heard a peep out of me."


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

For someone who was physically incapable of sweating, labor was absolute torture. Like cats, vampires usually regulated their body temperature by adapting to the environment, but now, the only thing that could keep me cool as my muscles worked overtime to push a child out was to douse me in ice water.

Edward naturally ran a cooler body temperature than me—not by much, but enough for my overheated skin to feel a difference—and he kept a hand secured on my forehead while also giving me encouraging words.

"You're doing so well, my love. Take your time. He's patient. He won't rush you."

Giving birth wasn't too painful. Not like it was for humans. It was more tedious than anything because it took so many hours, and every time I checked how much of our son I had pushed out, it felt as if he'd only come out a couple millimeters.

I was well into my second day when Mother came in with a tall glass of fresh blood.

It wasn't from Jessica.

In the last few months, I'd gotten so used to her scent I could easily distinguish it from the rest, and this large volume of blood could only mean the person was now dead.

Edward knew it too, but he ignored it since he understood I needed my strength to finish the birth of our son.

"Drink up," Mother instructed and handed me the glass, and I started to gulp it down. "We need to prepare his first meal," she then said and gestured for Edward to give her his arm. With a quick flick, she slit his wrist and instructed him to hold it over a second glass. Once she was satisfied with the amount, she did the same to me, mixing our bloods together.

Edward gave her a quizzical look, and she explained.

"A mix of the parents' blood holds all the nutrients he will need once his connection with Marya is broken. Just like animals need the first milk produced by the mother, he will need your blood to grow strong."

I gritted my teeth together and pushed again. "Mama, how much longer?"

Mother checked, and then stroke my hair gently. "Only a few more pushes." She looked up and locked eyes with Edward. "You should catch him when he comes. The two of you need to bond."

Edward had quickly learned that when it came to vampire pregnancies and births, there was no use in going against my mother, so he did as she told him after giving me one last encouraging kiss. He placed himself at the foot of the bed and gently massaged my thighs and calves as he waited for his son to come out fully.

"He's coming now," he said, and I could feel it. With one last push, our son left my body, and I felt so relieved. It was over, and I wanted to take a swan dive into an icy lake to get cool.

"Unbelievable," Edward breathed out, and I raised my head lethargically to see what he was reacting at. The child in his arms was looking up at him with clear eyes, and when Edward slowly tipped the glass of our blood to help him drink it, he eagerly grabbed it with both hands.

"What?" I asked, unable to understand why Edward had said what he'd said.

He looked at me while still feeding our son. "He's got my eyes. I thought for sure he'd get your brown ones, but they're the same as mine were as a human."

I looked at the child again, and sure enough, the eyes taking in his father were a brilliant, sparkly shade of green. I hadn't considered what Edward's eye color was before his transformation, but seeing it now on our son made me infinitely happy.

"You really don't want to name him Theron, do you?" I asked teasingly, and Edward looked back at him.

"He doesn't look like a Theron to me, but as a middle name perhaps?" he said, meeting me in the middle. "I'd like to name him after myself."

"You want to name him Edward?"

He shook his head. "No, after my own middle name. Anthony." His smile was brilliant as he tore his eyes away from his son and back at me. "In Latin it means—"

"Highly praiseworthy," I finished for him and nodded in approval. "I like it. Anthony Theron Cullen."

"Not Cullen," Edward disagreed. "That's not even my own name. It's Carlisle's." He gently took hold of one of Anthony's small hands. "He is a Dragulia through and through."

Anthony stopped drinking for a second to give his father a toothy smile. "Daddy," he said clearly, and then stretched out his free hand for me. "Momma."

Already feeling more like myself again, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and got up to stand with my small family. Mother looked at us with pride but didn't intrude on our little moment. Instead, she silently left the room.

Edward and I kissed deeply, and Anthony giggled, pleased at seeing the absolute love that was between his parents. I could remember feeling the same after my own birth.

I traced his little cheek with the tip of my finger. "Our own little darling," I murmured. "So handsome."

As I took in every feature of my son, a huge part of me hated that I would have to leave him so soon. We had collectively decided we needed to move fast after the birth because we had already pushed the inevitable war in front of us for too long.

Luckily, we had already explained this to Anthony just before his birth, and now he looked at us as if to say it was okay, even though he didn't speak out loud.

"He understands," Edward translated his thoughts for me. "He'll miss us, but he promises to be good to Grandma."

I leaned over and placed a kiss on top of his head. "I'm going to make sure this world becomes one in which you can live in freedom as yourself," I vowed.

For too long, I had been hiding, living under a false name to keep the Volturi off my radar. That was not going to be my son's life. Not if I had a say in the matter.

Therefore, even though it was with great reluctance, we passed Anthony to Mother so she could take care of him while we were gone. There were already several bags of my blood prepared for him to eat, but he needed some of Edward's as well, so while I washed up and got changed into more appropriate clothing, Mother inserted a sharp, hollow needle into his arm to take what she could without weakening him too much.

When I came back feeling clean and refreshed—I had never been more grateful for vampires' ability to heal and rebound as remarkably fast as we did—Father was talking to Anthony in Edward's arms, acting every bit the proud Grandpa he was.

"Are we ready then?" I asked and happily took my son from his father so I at least got to hold him and hug him once before we left.

"Yes. As good as."

My arms didn't want to give Anthony to Mother, but I forced myself to do it, and as we backed out of the house to keep our eyes on him for as long as possible, he raised his small hand and waved at us.

"Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad. Be safe!"


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15**

The darkness of the night didn't provide enough coverage for scouting in the sky when we arrived in the small town of Volterra in Italy.

It was a huge disadvantage to us because we were unfamiliar with the city—it didn't matter we'd studied maps and blueprints for months—and an aerial view of it all would have given us the chance to spot hidden passages and entrances to the castle.

Edward had offered to pretend he was there to visit Aro on Carlisle's behalf, but Father had quickly explained why that wasn't a good idea.

"If he so much as nudges your skin, all of us will be in danger. Not just Marya and I, but Regina and Anthony. Jessica. Her family. _Your_ family. It's too risky. We need to go with Plan B."

Father looked at me with slight reluctance, and Edward sighed in protest and frustration. He'd hated Plan B from the start, but now, it was our best shot.

None of the brothers knew who I was.

Their first mistake when they burned down our home was to kill Father from a distance and lose the chance of reading his thoughts. If they'd done that, they would have known everything about me, but now, I could move around the town quite anonymously.

I focused for a second to morph my eyes into the ice-blue color of the modern breed, and as far as they knew, I was now a peaceful, curious vampire who wanted to inquire about a position at their court.

My blocking ability would prevent Aro from reading my thoughts and Chelsea from tying me to them. I'd gain access to their dwellings, and we'd be able to ambush the brothers from the inside.

Edward pulled me close and captured my mouth with his. "Be careful," he urged gently, not even attempting to talk me out of it.

"I promise," I said, kissing him one more time, then giving Father a hug, before walking toward the gate.

It was going to work as a ruse because we knew the human guards worked like an alarm system for the brothers. They would immediately be contacted before I was allowed entrance since I was an unknown vampire, and while that commotion occurred, Edward and Father would scale the wall as far away from the castle and gate as possible. Any humans who noticed them could easily be hypnotized to forget.

I would have to work some of my hypnosis as well. Whichever vampire came to collect me for the brothers would be placed under an interrogation they'd forget the second the hypnosis wore off.

When one of the human guards looked at me, his expression immediately changed. He narrowed his eyes as he took in my features, but I gave him the most innocent look I could manage.

"Who do I speak to about a position with the _guard_ in the city?" I asked in perfect Italian.

The guard's heartbeat accelerated, and his eyes widened as he immediately put his phone to his ear. "Alert the Masters. An unknown is on the premises," he said, but I kept calm and held up my hands to show him I wasn't there to cause harm. At least, not to him.

Not even a minute had passed before a vampire boy came out from the shadows. His aura was calm and held some authority even though he couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen when he was changed.

"Gentlemen," he told the guards. "I'll take over from here." He locked eyes with me, and then gestured for me to follow him.

"Are you going to take me to the brothers?" I switched to British English to give him a hint of "where I was from".

"Everything in its own time," he replied. "First, I'd prefer knowing who you are."

"My name is Mary Hughes," I said, opting out of using the cover name I'd given the Cullens, just in case Carlisle had been in contact with Aro since Edward and I left. "I'm from Sussex in England. My creator recently moved to South America, but I asked to stay in Europe. I was hoping to inquire from the brothers about a position in their guard."

"Do you have a gift?"

"I-I think so," I said and sounded as uncertain as I could. "Several vampires I've come across say my presence is like a void, almost as if I'm not there. I've never developed anything or truly looked into it, so I don't know what exactly that means."

"Stand in front of me for a second," the vampire boy instructed. I'd already figured out who he was. Alec. Jane's twin brother, and one we'd nicknamed "Fog" because his gift blinded you like a very dense fog.

He was going to test his gift on me, but before he got the chance, I locked eyes with him and made him believe he'd already done it and found I wasn't affected. But I didn't stop there. While I had him under my control, I whispered questions under my breath in case curious ears were listening.

"Who are you loyal to?"

"The brothers."

"And without Chelsea?"

"No one."

"Not even your sister?"

"She's too unpredictable."

"Do you agree with your Masters' rule?"

"No."

"Would you serve another if given the choice?"

"Yes."

"Would others in the guard follow your example?"

"Yes."

"Who wouldn't?"

"Chelsea, Afton, Jane, Renata, Corin."

"Not the wives?"

"They're imprisoned. Restless."

"Thank you, Alec. You will forget this conversation in two seconds."

Alec blinked and appeared a little bit confused for a short moment. "You must have a gift," he said. "I'll take you to Aro right away."

As he led me into the castle, I planned in my head in which order I'd have to kill the guards who couldn't be converted. Chelsea had to be killed first because she ensured the entire guard would fight on Aro's side, but I wasn't certain how much Afton would protect her. After that, Corin had to go. Her gift was too widespread, and even if Chelsea was dead, she could fool the guard to believe they were satisfied in serving Aro. Then, Jane, and lastly Renata since she was the last obvious obstacle between Aro and his head being severed from his shoulders.

I couldn't wait too long either. Everything had to happen tonight.

A familiar scent reached my nose just before Alec and I went inside, and while I rejoiced that they'd succeeded in entering the city without so much as alerting a pigeon, I quickly gave Edward the rundown in my thoughts. _"Chelsea and Corin first. Corin will be in the tower with the wives. The wives are not loyal to their husbands."_

Father would take out Corin because he could fly up to the tower, Edward would go after Chelsea, and I would focus on keeping the brothers in the throne room.

Jane and Renata would try to take me out, but I was quite positive after hearing what Alec said that the guard would gladly assist me once Chelsea's hold on them vanished.

I wasn't really worried about Afton. From my understanding, he wasn't very dangerous, and his gift of invisibility barely aided him.

We used an elevator to ride down deep underground, and I meekly followed Alec without making a fuss.

Eventually, after going through several halls and reception areas, we arrived in front of two large oak doors, which Alec pushed open.

I had to suppress my smile at the sight of the brothers' arrogance as they sat on their thrones like the fraudulent Kings they were. Renata was standing in Aro's shadow, and Jane was sitting crossed-legged on the floor by their feet, looking every bit the child she'd been as a human, but I knew what sadistic power she was hiding behind those cold blue eyes.

"Mary Hughes, Masters," Alec introduced me in Greek, most likely believing it would keep me ignorant. "She has a defensive gift she's unaware of. Thwarted my attempts without realizing it."

"Thank you, Alec," Aro said, and I held in my shudder at his disgustingly sweet voice. "Fetch Chelsea for us, will you? Hopefully, her gift can't be shut out."

Aro stood and spread his arms as if he wanted to hug me from a distance as Alec left through a side door.

"Mary! What a lovely name for a lovely young woman," he said in English and smiled.

"Thank you," I said even though I really didn't want to.

"What can we do for you?"

"I wish to become one of your guard."

Aro's smile widened. "My dear, we cannot take in every vampire walking in from the street. What makes you so special?"

"I know things," I said cryptically, and I was very satisfied at seeing confusion mar his face.

"Oh? Alec said your gift was defensive, not precognitive."

"It's not, but I can still tell the future. In a way." I was only stalling at that point. About fifteen minutes had passed since I went inside, and that was more than enough for Father and Edward to find and kill Chelsea and Corin. If everything went according to the plan, they would join me in the throne room momentarily.

Aro looked intrigued. The other two looked like they couldn't even be bothered. "How so?"

I held out my hand for him as if I was going to let him read my mind. I knew Aro's greed would prevent him from rejecting the offer. "Let me show you."

Just before Aro touched my hand, I heard what I'd been waiting for just before the oak doors creaked open. Faster than Aro could react, I pulled my hand away from him and grabbed his long black hair instead, forcing him to his knees before I cradled his head in my hands, forcing him to see who was walking through the doors.

Caius and Marcus stood up but didn't otherwise move, Renata was staring at me in disbelief, not understanding how I was defying her gift, and Jane's eyes were on fire with rage.

They couldn't do anything though. One step and Aro was dead.

With the deepest satisfaction, I watched as Aro processed the sight of Father walking through the large double doors, looking like the epitome of elegance and grace.

"Aro Doukas," Father said, using Aro's human last name. "I believe you have a few crimes to answer for."

Aro's eyes jumped between the two females holding onto Father's arms, to the detached heads gripped in Edward's hands.

"Your brides and guard, I'm afraid, have changed allegiance," Father announced with an almost benevolent smile. "Now, it's your choice to either surrender or force my hand."


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16**

"Well, Aro? What will it be?" Father asked, and while we waited for the scum to answer, I noticed Edward glaring at one of the vampires behind me.

"I wouldn't do that, Jane," he warned. "You wouldn't get very far."

Alec, recently released from Chelsea's gift, was standing on the sidelines and showed what he'd told me in hypnosis. He was deeply embarrassed by his sister, and he wasn't even making an attempt at defending her.

Still with a firm grip on Aro's head, I looked over my shoulder at the little sadist. "Don't worry yourself. Your turn is coming. We won't forget about you."

"Sulpicia," Aro said with false bravado even though his voice shook. He locked eyes with his wife and tried to appear dominant despite being on his knees. "How can you betray me like this?"

"Try being loyal to the warden of your prison after hundreds of years," Sulpicia said with a newly awakened fire in her eyes. "Without Corin, you know I would have left a long time ago."

Father shook his head as if he were disappointed in one of his children. "Aro, a bride isn't a possession. You mustn't bind their wings. It will only backfire on you."

Aro gave Father a defiant look, and I understood he'd accepted his fate. Escape was an impossibility no matter what he did, so he had resigned. "If you want to kill me, just do it. There's no use in dragging it out."

A patient smile stretched over Father's lips. "But what would be the lesson in that? If I simply killed you, how can I guarantee no one would attempt your scheme again?"

"So it's torture then?"

"I don't believe in torture, Aro." Father sighed. "Those are your ways. However, I think I will borrow a page from your book. Eternal imprisonment sounds more than fair to me."

Sulpicia and Athenadora's eyes were pleased, but Aro had the gall to chuckle.

"There are no walls in the entire world that can keep a vampire in."

The smile on Father's face stretched wider. "I know, but I wasn't exactly intending for you to go to a physical prison."

From his pocket, he pulled out a syringe filled with a clear, bright red liquid. Aro had just enough time to widen his eyes in fear before Father plunged the needle into his neck.

"Your cells are now infused with my venom, just like any other of my progenies, effectively tying your life with mine," Father explained as if he were saying it to a child. "If I die, so do you."

With those words, Aro was weakened to a pile of nothing. "No, please, I'd rather you kill me," he begged.

He knew he was now shackled to Father for as long as he'd have him. He could never rise against him because it would result in his own death as well, and for a vampire like Aro, that was the ultimate punishment. His standing in the vampire community would be reduced to zero the second he submitted to a life of servitude.

"I will," Father assured him evenly. "When you've served your time."

Aro started sobbing, revealing what a truly pathetic man he was: a man who'd suffered from hubris after assassinating the true vampire king, and then surrounded himself with others more powerful to assure no one would challenge him. It was downright cowardly.

I released him from my grip and pushed him to the floor where he stayed, and I walked over to Father. "You and Edward should take care of what's needed in here," I said quietly, referring to Marcus, Caius, Renata, and Jane. "I'll talk to the guard."

The guard consisted of twenty-two vampires, and they all followed me, albeit somewhat cautiously, as I left the throne room to tell them what had happened and what would happen going forward.

We ended up in what had been their combat chamber where all the guards were trained in fighting.

"I understand this must all be rather disconcerting to you," I started. "Most of you have no idea who we are, but I want to be clear on one point, and that is that we're not interested in harming you, killing you, torturing you, or keeping you as prisoners. The time of serving someone against your will is at an end."

"Who exactly are you?" A burly man with an olive complexion and shortly cropped dark hair asked. I identified him as Felix.

"My name is Marya Dragulia. The man you saw talking with Aro is my father, Vladislaus Dragulia—the first vampire to ever walk this earth."

A shocked and awe-filled mumble filled the chamber as the guards started talking amongst themselves.

"All of you deserve an explanation, but it's a long story," I cautioned. "One we will make certain every vampire knows. For now though, all you need to know is that Aro's dictatorship is over. You have the choice to either leave and create your own lives, or you can stay and help me and my father build a new and better community for vampires. We won't force you either way, and we won't hold your choice against you."

The majority of the vampires slowly left the chamber, and I didn't blame them. It wasn't clear exactly how Chelsea's gift had worked—if it had been like my hypnosis where the vampire wasn't aware of conflicting thoughts, or if their own will had constantly battled with the mind control.

In the end, only five remained, and to my great shock, it was those who had been deemed Aro's most loyal: Alec, Heidi, Felix, Demetri, and Santiago.

Almost as if he were their leader, Felix took it upon himself to talk for all of them. "We've been the brothers' guards for centuries. Even without Chelsea, I know I'm not fit to be anything else, so if you'll have us, we'd be happy serving you."

I smiled at him. "We appreciate that, but before you make any promises, you need to know that things will be different under my father's rule. For one, the lifestyle you have here won't exist. A thousand years ago, before Aro took the throne, being a stagnant ruler worked. We also had a castle we rarely left, and our subjects came to us. That will change, and so will your hunting habits."

At my last statement, Heidi looked a little disappointed, and I knew it was because she'd acted as bait for the majority of the Volturi's meals, but I reassured her she'd have a valuable place with us despite her previous position being dissolved.

Just like Edward had predicted, it was imperative we showed the vampire community that just because the Volturi no longer existed, they weren't suddenly allowed to break the existing laws and run rampant.

With the use of the Volturi's vast collection of the most modern technology, we were able to get statements out very quickly to almost every vampire in the world, and we promised to tell our story without sparing any details.

It was a whirlwind of organizing and re-organizing. Caius and Jane were immediately executed because it wasn't possible to talk sense with them. Eventually, Renata had to follow their fate because Aro had brainwashed her so thoroughly; she almost went insane at the thought of her master being a servant of another.

Marcus, on the other hand, asked for some time to truly mourn his late wife—Aro's biological younger sister—before we killed him. He wanted to travel to Greece, to the place where their village used to be and see how everything had changed since he'd experienced those places with Didyme.

Edward told me he thought Didyme had been Marcus' true mate, but they never had children because Aro had prevented them from being intimate as he saw that as leverage he could use on them both. It was yet another aspect that showed how manipulative Aro was.

Father saw Marcus' request as reasonable, especially when he heard of Edward's suspicions, and he explained to us how unbearable it was to lose a true mate. He'd only felt a fraction of it when he saw Mother's body before her revival, but he'd been soothed by the fact that he'd have her with him soon. He said he wouldn't wish that feeling on his worst enemy, and Aro had caused it deliberately to his supposed "brother".

Personally, I wished Father had just killed the monster right away, but I could see the benefits of punishing him as well.

When Mother finally joined us with Anthony, and I got to hold my boy in my arms again, I never wanted to let him go. Barely a week had passed since we left, but he already looked several months older.

"We'll be together now?" he asked in his light voice.

"Yes, darling," I said, and Edward placed his arm around my shoulders. "You, Daddy, and I won't be apart again."

Edward had invited his family to Volterra—it had temporarily become our base until we could fully organize the new rule—and they were now watching us with awestruck faces.

"Carlisle," Edward called softly. "Come meet my son."

All of them approached us slowly, and Anthony studied them with interest. When Carlisle was close enough, he reached out to pat him.

"Are you Daddy's Dad?" he asked, and his perfect pronunciation despite only looking like a nine-month old caused Carlisle to blink in a stunned manner.

"Sort of," he replied, and it was good enough for Anthony.

"Then you're my other grandpa!"

It was hopeless to resist our son's charm, and an incredulous laugh escaped Carlisle. "Yeah, I guess I am." He turned to look at Edward, and then at me. "How is this possible?"

Edward and I shared a smile.

"We'll tell you everything," I said. "But it's a long story. And this time, I promise everything will be the truth."

**THE END**

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**A/N:**

That's it, folks! That was my FAGE story written for Alyscia! I hope you and she enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed writing it as I got to craft my own brand of vampire.

Thank you to Deonne for reviving FAGE again. Thank you to Alyscia, for the prompt she gave me that gave me the idea for this story. Without these two, this story wouldn't exist. Thank you to Alice's White Rabbit, my awesome beta and friend!

Until my next story,

Stay Awesome!


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